#RepYourRegion: Saskatoon Supernovas hoping to shine bright come tournament time
All the way from Saskatoon, The Supernovas are a team you should keep an eye out for in this years Bballnationals Tournament. I had the pleasure of talking with Mike Tanton, the coach of the U13/15 girls. He shared the teams excitement about coming to the tournament and a little bit about the team's preparation for making the trip. Even during the busy summer months, the team gets together twice a week to practice.
What’s special about this team is their connection that goes beyond the court. For a group of girls in the prairies, it’s an exciting thing to be visiting another province to play in a large, competitive tournament. While they focus on bettering themselves, the girls have also done some coaching together, playing with younger kids at camp. They are able to work on skills that will help them on and off the court — improving upon their game but also learning valuable skills that will help them in the future.
Tanton also touched on the fact that some of the girls on the team are Indigenous youth or new to Canada. The opportunity to play on a team, let alone traveling to play is pretty huge for some of these girls, and also promotes indigenous empowerment and the inclusion of everyone, no matter where from.
He also mentioned the team doing a lot of fundraising with the girls to assist with paying for them to play. Being new to a country and supporting a family can be hard and on top of that, having the funds for their children to play sports. That’s why the club has put in extensive efforts to fundraise so the girls can play and be apart of a team and ultimately their community.
While all of the girls mesh well together, there are two superstars to look out for; Jada and Willow. They are the teams leads and have been killing it defensively, bringing that energy to the rest of the team and creating a strong unit for the rest of the players to feed off of. With the team being young, there is plenty of time for development and the potential is endless. The Supernovas will be in town in just two weeks, so once that tournament schedule comes out, make sure you catch a game!
Bballnationals starts July 28th at the Langley Events Centre. BC Sports Hub will have exclusive coverage of the entire tournament — make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter so you don’t miss a thing!
Written by: Amara Hundal