The Burnaby Chiefs are the winners of the first-ever Lheidli Classic, defeating Similkameen in the final by a score of 141-91.
The tournament brought 12 basketball teams representing First Nations from around the province to Prince George to compete in the tournament.
“It has been an amazing experience, long days, lots of exciting competition,” said Tournament Committee Member Erica McLean.
“We’re just super grateful right now that the teams trusted us to make this happen and to hold this tournament in a good way.”
McLean said many people said they would be interested in coming back for the tournament next year.
She added they learned a lot on the logistical pieces that come with hosting a tournament.
“We really just tried to reach out to the teams from the beginning and say thank you so much for coming, with this being our first tournament, we want to talk, we want to have conversations about how we can make it better,” McLean said.
“We are in this to learn and build relationships in the basketball community, so it’s been really good, we met a lot of great people this weekend.”
McLean noted there was supposed to be a women’s tournament as well, but it ultimately fell through.
“There was a lot of interest, there’s a lot of support for women’s sport, but in the end we only had two teams register, just because of stuff coming up with different teams,” she explained.
“It happens and we anticipated that we may run into some hiccups, ultimately, but a lot of folks from different communities said “we’ll keep watching, we’ll keep trying for next year.”
McLean added she hopes support for the tournament continues to grow, and there will be a big crowd at next year’s tournament.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
