The weekends immediately prior to Remembrance Day are invariably busy ones in high school athletics. This year, November 8-9 will see a range of Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association events.
Provincial football championship games, boys’ conference volleyball, and girls’ regional volleyball playoffs will all be contested. Five football classifications will declare a provincial champion and two bronze medalists, while boys’ volleyball teams will vie for the right to advance to regional play, and girls’ volleyball teams will be qualifying for their provincial championships. Over the course of the weekend, approximately 3,500 student-athletes will represent over 220 volleyball teams in 48 tournaments and 14 football teams in 5 championship games and 2 bronze-medal games.
On the three weekends preceding Remembrance Day, Saskatchewan high school athletes will participate in another tradition. Student uniforms will bear a poppy sticker, one of 9000 distributed to schools and student athletes, coaches and officials.
“The importance of sport in our schools and communities is an example of the opportunities provided to youth through the service of our veterans,” says a joint statement by the Royal Canadian Legion, Saskatchewan Command and the SHSAA.
The athletes are our future leaders and our future knowledge keepers,” says Chad Wagner, executive director of the Royal Canadian Legion, Saskatchewan Command. “We’ve got to engage them while they are young and willing to learn. We want to ensure they have the history of our country, our military, our RCMP so that it continues on for a long time and remembrance is something that is perpetual.”
The poppies have also been issued to players in the upcoming 16U and 18U women’s hockey tournament in Regina for players and officials to wear on their helmets.
During the weekend leading up to Remembrance Day, free admission will be provided to Legion members showing their Legion member card when attending SHSAA events and all host schools are encouraged to plan an observance of Remembrance Day.