Wesmen Classic shakes things up

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This article was published 15/08/2017 (2967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Wesmen Classic men’s basketball tournament celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016.

Who knew what dramatic change the Classic’s second half-century would bring? On Tuesday, the University of Winnipeg announced a major change to the format, which will now involve each of the school’s four indoor teams.

Athletic director Dave Crook revealed the Classic will now be staged on a rotating basis during the Christmas break. The Wesmen men’s volleyball team, coached by Larry McKay, will usher in the new era by hosting the reconstituted event in 2017. Women’s basketball takes centre stage in 2018, to be followed by women’s volleyball in 2019 and men’s basketball in 2020. In addition, the women’s basketball event in 2018 will also stage a high school girls division while the men’s tournament will also include divisions for high school and junior varsity teams.

“I coached in 23, 24 of them, won four of them, it’s been a big part of my life,” Crook said at a news conference to announce the revamp of the U of W’s signature athletic event. “It’s been a huge part of my life since I was a little kid. It’s huge, right? When I got the (athletic director’s) job, I thought about a couple of things. One, we run one huge major event every year and it’s for men’s basketball only, right?

“And we run other sports and we have another gender playing and I think we maybe need to think about sharing it. I thought we needed to finish to 50 (the anniversary year) and I thought we got to 50, that was really important. Sometimes change can be a good thing, and you don’t know if you don’t try. It’s a great opportunity.”

Being included in a marquee Christmas event is big news for the participants.

“I think it’s a really cool idea, I’m excited to get the opportunity,” said Paige Hastings Van, a six-foot forward entering her fourth year on the women’s basketball team.

“We’ve watched the boys play for years now. I think we always thought it would be nice to join in, especially because it’s such a big event.

“My teammates are really excited, too…. Everyone wanted to watch, and we always hoped something like this would happen.”

Men’s basketball head coach Mike Raimbault said it was time to share the wealth.

“I look at it more as an opportunity to share something extremely special with the other coaches and student athletes,” Raimbault, who will exploit the vacancy on his schedule by booking more out-of-conference exhibition games, said.

“It was a long time running as a basketball event, but I also know what a great experience it is, and to see my colleagues and other student athletes who get to be a part of it, it will be rewarding as well.”

Smaller crowds at the Classic in recent years were not a major motivation for change, Crook insisted.

“It wasn’t attendance as much as it’s just the amount of work and how hard it is to get seven universities, men’s basketball teams, to come every single year,” said Crook. “It’s an expensive time of the year to travel…. It takes a lot of pressure off Mike (Raimbault), there’s a lot of pressure to do that every year.”

Crook said he will be interested to see how local volleyball fans respond to the changes.

“I’m hoping it’ll be a good crowd and the volleyball community will step up because it’s something new and different for them,” he said.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @sawa14