By Greg Higgins

Vikings try to defend home turf

Feb 26, 2016 | 3:50 PM

The North Battleford Comprehensive High School Vikings senior boys basketball team will try to defend their home gym as they host a two day basketball tournament over the weekend.

“We haven’t done well the last few years,” Vikings head coach Jamie Summerfeld said. “We won Hoopla in 2012 and we had a very heavy component of Grade 12’s. So since that time we have been rebuilding that program with young kids and community basketball.”

With rebuilding complete, Summerfeld and his Vikings have one plan. “We are going to win our tournament. That is our goal. We’re going to see some very stiff competition.”

The stiff competition Summerfeld is referring to is the St. Mary’s Marauders out of Prince Albert.  The Marauders are ranked number one in the rural 5A division going in, but according to him that just adds to the Vikings fire.

“Prince Albert is very strong this year and they’re ranked number one, so it’s my hope that was see them in the finals this year.”

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A pair of brothers is one of the main pieces in Summerfeld’s offensive plan.

“Mathew Dutton is kind of the silent assassin. He has a lot of assists, great passing, and scores a lot under the rim. The best all-around player we have is Damon Dutton, he’s a threat and he’s a provincial player.”

For Summerfeld several freshman players also make a big impact.

“I have a couple of niners. My gunslingers, Riley Rathwell, he’s my starting point guard and the other kid comes off the bench, Jordan Poitras. Both look to put up about 15 points per game, they like to bomb from the three.”

The Vikings have posted an impressive 18-5 record so far this year, which Summerfeld attributes to how close knit the team is and how hard they work.

“We practice every night for a couple of hours then we’re gone almost every weekend from early December to the end of March, so these guys get very close and they just kind of work through things.”

All that travelling can get very expensive but coach Summerfeld doesn’t think that is an excuse for any kid to not be able to play.

“No child will not play because of money. We’ve never run across that and we have a lot of kids in need. At the start of the year we go out and sell gold cards and if we have a kid in need we will pull money out of the gold cards”

Summerfeld also said they receive help from the Jumpstart program and other community fundraising. Jumpstart is a program designed to help underprivileged kids play sports they otherwise could not afford to play.

Eight teams will square off Friday Feb. 26 playing one game each. The winners will move on to play in the A side tournament Saturday Feb. 27 consisting of two semifinals and a championship. The losers will play a consolation tournament on Saturday as well.

The first game tips off at 3 p.m. Friday. Action starts back up at 10 a.m. Saturday with the championship game at 7 p.m. Summerfeld wants any basketball fan to come on down.

“There is no fee to come watch, so if you are a basketball fan, come on in, cheer on the teams. You don’t even have to know anybody. These kids are working really hard and it is good basketball.”

ghiggins@jpbg.ca            

@realgreghiggins