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Old Crow Dawson team wins inaugural basketball tourney

The long trip home to Old Crow and Dawson wasn't a bitter one for some community basketball players this week.
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The long trip home to Old Crow and Dawson wasn’t a bitter one for some community

basketball players this week.

An Old Crow-Dawson City split team called OCDC went undefeated to win the first annual North of 60 Shootout Invitational on Saturday at Vanier Catholic Secondary School.

OCDC went 4-0 at the tourney and defeated Whitehorse’s H1 and 1 team 76-65 in the final.

“They have some good players in Old Crow and Dawson,” said H1 and 1 player Colin LaForme.

“The guys from Dawson brought a lot of energy, had a lot of fun, and there was one ringer, but we allowed it.”

Yes, OCDC certainly had a ringer. Through a friend in the territory, OCDC had on their squad Osvaldo Jeanty, a five-time CIS champion who played professional basketball in Europe.

Not surprisingly, Jeanty was named the tournament MVP while teammate Kenji Welch took the hustle award and Jeremy McCullough took top defensive player.

H1 and 1 wasn’t without an honour as Will Chetchit was named top offensive player.

“The tournament was a huge success this past weekend, with top players from the territory and the country,” said LeForme, who was the tournament organizer. “The tournament saw some spectacular plays and clutch shooting.”

In the battle for third place, Whitehorse’s Rim Shots came back from behind to down the Yukon C&P’s, a team made up of coaches and players from the territory’s rep program, 66-58.

Other honourable mentions went to C&P’s Chris Carino and Sean McCaron; Rim Shots’ Jon Buckle and Sean Schmidt; and H1 and 1’s Dave Steilan.

“The plan is to keep it going,” said LaForme. “We had a good turnout and I think it went pretty well. It was the first one, so we’re going to make some tweaks to it.

“We had a lot of support from the communities, they had a great time.

“We organized it with short notice because of how we got the gym time, with a special permit from the city. But I talked with teams from Haines and Skagway and they said they would be interested in coming, so I’m hoping we can make it an even bigger tournament next year.”

The timing of the tournament was also meant to kick off the new Yukon Men’s Basketball League, which will start Sunday following a draft on Friday.

“If you are still interested in joining the league, there are forms at Sport Yukon,” said LaForme.

The league will take place Sunday and Tuesday evenings at Porter Creek Secondary School this winter. The cost per player is $150 for the season, including 10 regular season games, a jersey and playoffs.

For more information, contact LaForme at colinlaforme@gmail.com or visit the league’s website at yukonmensbball.wix.com/yukon.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com