OK. So the highways prevent you from travelling to the Lower Mainland for your scheduled basketball tournaments.
Do you sit and pout?
No.
You work the phones.
With that, the Vernon Impromptu Invitational Senior Boys Basketball Tournament was born out of the floods of 2025, with tip off being Friday afternoon with the host Vernon Panthers taking on the Okanagan Mission Huskies of Kelowna at 3 p.m.
All tournament games are at the Panther Pit.
The championship is slated for 8:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13.
“Mark Zaino (VSS) and I contacted a bunch of the teams that also couldn’t make it to the Lower Mainland for tournaments and we were able to pull something together at VSS,” said Tim Thorpe, co-coach of the Kalamalka Lakers of Coldstream, who were to be playing this weekend at the G.W. Grahams Grizzlies tournament in Chilliwack. That tournament got cancelled due to the flooding.
“I’m glad we were able to salvage the weekend.”
The Lakers play Friday at 6:30 p.m. against the Pen Hi Lakers of Penticton.
Three Kelowna schools and one from Kamloops round out the field.
The Mt. Boucherie Bears of West Kelowna meet the Westsyde Whundas of Kamloops at 4:45 p.m. Friday, and the Rutland Thunder face the Kelowna Owls B Team at 8:15 p.m.
Games continue at 8 a.m. Saturday.
Semifinals are at 9:45 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.
• The Vernon Panthers were able to make it to Langley for the Tsumura Invitational senior girls tournament.
The Cats, ranked No. 2 in the B.C. AAA rankings, knocked off the seventh-seeded 4A team, the Semiahmoo Thunderbirds of Surrey, before playing their collective hearts out in a tough 76-60 quarterfinal loss to 4A’s No. 2 ranked squad, the Riverside Rapids of Port Coquitlam.
Vernon is slated to face the G.P. Vanier Towhees of Courtenay at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, in consolation play.
SUBWAY BATTLE OF VERNON
The Panthers and Lakers will both be in action Monday, Dec. 15, in the inaugural Subway Battle of Vernon senior boys and girls tournament.
The Vernon Christian Royals’ girls and boys squad visit Kal Secondary Monday, with the boys’ squads on the floor first at 12 p.m., followed by the girls at 1:45 p.m.
Across town at Fulton Secondary, the Maroons will host the Panthers. Boys on at 12 p.m., girls at 1:45 p.m.
The tournament runs until Thursday, Dec. 18. The Seaton Sonics and Pleasant Valley Saints are also part of the six-team boys field.