Skills competition featured at Rebel Classic

By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

The 13th Annual Taber Rebel Classic Basketball Tournament is ready to tip off this Friday.

The Rebels girls’ field features Bert Church, Monsignor McCoy, Stirling, Crescent Heights, Winston Churchill, Brooks and Notre Dame.

“The only team we’ve seen is Crescent Heights so far this season and Notre Dame is a 4A school from Calgary,” said Kenney Wood, head coach of the W.R. Myers Rebels girls basketball team, which is currently ranked as the top 3A girls basketball team in the province. “Stirling is the top ranked 1A team in the province and McCoy is ranked fifth in 3A. The team can’t wait to get going again on the court after a bit of a layoff.”

The Rebels girls start their tournament run on Friday at 6 p.m. at Myers gym against Notre Dame.

On the boy’s side, along with the host Rebels, Bert Church, Brooks, Livingstone, Kate Andrews, Stirling, Highwood and Picture Butte are featured.

The Rebels boys start their tournament run at 8 p.m. on Friday at Myers gym against Picture Butte.

A highlight of the tournament is the skills competition that starts at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at Myers gym.

The competition requires 12 players from each team for three different events. Points will be awarded for each event and the team with the most points will be crowned the Team Skills Competition Champions and receive a championship plaque.

The event includes a full-court cone dribbling/lay up challenge, a team hot-shot shooting challenge, and a free throw game called ‘Five in the Bucket.’

To accommodate the tournament, games will be played at Central, D.A. Ferguson and St. Mary’s gymnasiums as well.

Play continues at the tournament at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday with the girls championship game going at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday.

The boys championship game goes at 7 p.m. on Saturday.