Saskatchewan high school basketball playoffs cancelled despite student rally

Despite a large student rally at the Saskatchewan legislature Wednesday morning, the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association has cancelled basketball playoffs.

“It is with regret that all remaining SHSAA sanctioned basketball events for the 2019-20 high school season of play are cancelled,” states a media release sent out by the SHSAA later Wednesday.

The organization said it’s aware of “the disappointment that exists amongst our student athletes and coaches” and that in recent days students “have demonstrated many of the qualities that their coaches have tried to nurture in an educational athletic setting.”

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation announced sanctions Monday after contract talks between the federation and the government came to a standstill. The parties have been embroiled in a contract dispute for 10 months.

As of Thursday, teachers are withdrawing from extracurricular activities. The SHSAA said playoffs rely heavily on teacher involvement and won’t be able to operate without them.

Students from all corners of Saskatchewan gathered on the steps of the legislature showcasing the fact that they’ve become caught in the middle of the ongoing labour dispute between their teachers and the provincial government.

The rally was organized by Indian Head High School student Hunter Watson, 17,  who posted an open invitation to her peers on Facebook after learning the was cancelling basketball playoffs if the STF did not lift sanctions by Wednesday afternoon.

“I was really emotional at the time. I had just been told that these things were being taken away,” Watson said. “Me and my team just got together and decided we can either stand back and let this happen or try and do something about it.”

From Humboldt to Foam Lake to Assiniboia, hundreds of students  — many wearing high school team jerseys  —  chanted: “Let us play.”

The group was largely comprised of basketball teams, but included football and hockey players as well as drama students.

“It shows the true community that high school extracurriculars are,” Watson said. “We never could have dreamed that it would have gotten this huge.”

1:44 Saskatchewan teachers’ sanctions being felt across the province

A number of students stayed at the legislature for Wednesday afternoon’s question period, cheering when the government was challenged on the lack of progress it’s made bargaining with teachers.

“We’re happy that they came here to express their voice,” Education Minister Gordan Wyant told reporters after. “They also need to know why these events are being cancelled. And if the union will come back to the bargaining table and lift the sanctions, then these events can continue.”

STF president Patrick Maze told Global News sanctions will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Foam Lake Composite High School Grade 12 student Zaeyah Wilson, who plays on one of the top-ranked senior girls basketball teams in the province, travelled more than two hours to Regina for the rally.

Losing the chance to compete in the regional and provincial championships is devastating, she said, but doesn’t blame her teachers.

“We know our teachers do so much for us that they don’t get paid for,” Wilson said. “We understand that there’s a need for a strike to make noise and to get to change, so that’s why we’re here today, to make that noise and bring forth that change.”

Maura Belles, in Grade 12 at Assiniboia Composite High School, went so far as to thank her teachers.

“I know there’s not a single one of them that wanted this to happen,” Belles said.

Belles also plays senior girls basketball.

“It’s so crazy to look around and see all the girls who have been your rivals for the last four or five years and how connected we feel to them today because of this opportunity to be able to show how much we care and how much this means to us,” she said.

Students are expected to rally at the legislature again on Friday.

-With files from Allison Bamford