So high school

Winnipeg Free Press

4 days ago

Some high school rivalries never die, especially when it comes to sports.
And reigniting that fire are Calvin Diaz and Joseph Medrano, who are giving alumni from high schools across Winnipeg the chance to run it back on the court and see if their school still has what it takes.
The Run It Back Alumni Basketball Tournament, now in its third year, has already seen plenty of success, bringing together players from the graduating classes of 2022 all the way back to 1999 to face off against old rivals.
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Calvin Diaz (left) and Joseph Medrano, organizers of the third annual Run It Back high school alumni basketball tournament, MC at last year's tourney. This year's contest, played at the Duckworth Centre from Aug. 8-10, features two divisions and 16 teams.
This year, 16 teams will make their way to the Duckworth Centre downtown from Aug. 8-10 to compete in the tournament.
'It's just seeing the whole community come together,' Medrano said on what he's looking forward to. 'Seeing everyone from different generations really just mesh all together in one week, and everyone gets to compete again. You've got parents that haven't seen their children play in x amount of years, and then they get to do it all over in front of them.'
Medrano and Diaz had been workshopping the idea of the tournament for several years before its debut, sparked by an assignment for a project planning class when the pair was wrapping up their last year at the University of Winnipeg.
After lots of planning, support from family and the basketball community, and delays caused by COVID lockdowns, the tournament officially launched in 2023 — and was a huge success, featuring 13 teams.
'Our first year was real surprising,' said Diaz. 'It was just a project we were getting up and running, and I think we must have had over 500 spectators.'
The following year, it doubled in size to 21 teams and introduced a women's division.
However, this year there wasn't enough interest to bring the women's league back, forcing Diaz and Medrano to put it on hold. Still, the pair hopes the division can return in the future, as they continue working to grow the event.
'I think room for improvement is just getting a bit more exposure through word of mouth, social media,' said Diaz. 'I feel we could have done a better job at just getting the word out. That's just disappointing on our end. We would have loved to have the women's division back up and running this year. It was super exciting when we brought them out last year. But yeah, can't always be perfect and ideal.'
'Our first year was real surprising. It was just a project we were getting up and running, and I think we must have had over 500 spectators.'–Calvin Diaz
The tournament features two divisions: the Legends Division, made up of seven teams of ex-pro and college players, and the All Time Division, which has nine teams made up mostly of recreational players. Each division has rosters of about 10 to 12 players.
'Both divisions, we've seen the last years have just been equally as competitive,' said Medrano.
The Legends Division has crowned different champions each year, with Sisler High School taking the inaugural title and Miles Macdonell Collegiate winning in 2024.
In the All Time Division, the Maples Collegiate Marauders have won back-to-back.
The tournament has adopted the target score ending format, used in the CEBL, a fan favourite according to Diaz and Medrano.
'One thing that really differentiates us, too, is that we also provide jerseys for the teams,' said Medrano. 'Just to kind of help make our tournament stand out. So if anyone's coming down for like photography, videography, we always want to make sure that everything is presentable and professional at the very least.'
A new addition this year is a rural Manitoba team, made up of players from schools outside the city coming together to form a squad.
The tournament has even been gaining recognition outside its home province, as talks of teams from Saskatchewan potentially entering are underway for future years.
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'The sport of basketball never dies,' said Calvin Diaz (left) (Supplied)
'The sport of basketball never dies,' said Diaz. 'It's just the competitive spirit kind of rekindling those rivalries. Sisler against Miles Mac, they're trying to run the championship game back. Sturgeon (Heights Collegiate) is a big team as well. A lot of teams are just coming out being really competitive.'
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