The 88th edition of the McLeod series is kicking off tonight as the Estevan and Weyburn senior Boys and Girls teams face off tonight for the first two of their four matches.
For the first time in a while, the Estevan teams are heading into the matches as the reigning champions, hoping to hold onto the title through the games.
Estevan Senior Boys Head Coach Trevor Dutka says that the match is something the whole team is looking forward to.
"Looking forward to it. I think both the athletes and the students look forward to these games. It's pretty exciting for us and Weyburn, so the boys are excited. I talked to the girl's coach Jesse Smoliak the other day and they're excited too. So we're looking forward to some good competitive basketball."
With an extra week to prepare as the original games were delayed due to poor weather, Dutka says they're hoping to be ready to have a strong start to the series.
"Our team, we're coming together. [At the] start of the year, we had some rough spots, but we're definitely taking some steps up the ladder here and we've been playing really well the last couple of weeks."
Dutka says having that experience from last year's winning team should help to give the new players some guidance.
"From the guys that were on the team last year, they can kind of let the new guys on the team understand what the McLeod series is all about, that kind of thing. But it's year after year, honestly, basketball's one of those sports where any team can beat any team, any night."
Both senior girls' and boys' teams have yet to face their Weyburn counterparts this season. The McLeod Series will mark their first meetings of the season, and Prysm Gooding isn't letting that fact shake her team's nerve.
"The one thing that we really talked about at practice is we want to stay composed. We don't want to be all flustered. And we want to be together as a team about...using each other's energy to give each other energy because we're in school all day," the female basketball player shared.
The girls have been hard at work on the court to prepare for the big matchup. Some of the areas they've honed in on are pushing past Weyburn's defence and boxing out. "Their defence is very different compared to other schools that [we've played] against."
Coach Dutka and Gooding are urging fans to make their way to the Weyburn Comprehensive School tonight, despite the bitter cold.
The teams will meet again in Estevan on February 26th to settle the series. Gooding noted that the game inside the Estevan Comprehensive School next week will be dedicated to two members of the community, Bob Siebel and Amanda Minchin. Siebel, who passed away recently from cancer recently, was a big proponent of high school basketball for Estevan and has been a fan of the program for a long time. They will also be taking donations for local athlete Amanda Minchin and her battle with cancer.