The eighth annual Cochrane Classic tournament transformed the town into a mecca of basketball over the three-day period of Jan. 14-16.
The tournament, which featured 32 teams (at all levels: junior and senior boys and girls), included all three Cochrane high schools.
Numerous travelling teams from Calgary and Leduc, among others, made this year’s edition the biggest of it’s kind yet.
“It was a great tournament,” said tournament organizer and Cobras junior girls coach Doug Jensen.
“We had some fantastic basketball games, especially in the semi-finals and finals.”
Cobras were the dominant Cochrane school during the event, as their junior boys picked up first place in their category.
Junior girls and senior boys finished runners-up, while senior girls finished in seventh.
“My girls team did really well,” Jensen said.
“We made it to the final, but lost to Centennial. We battled for forty minutes, but it was one of those games where the scoreboard didn’t show how happy the coaches were at the end of the game. It was a growing game for us. We took huge steps forward as a team despite the score.”
As proud as Jensen is of his team and Cobras in general, the real goal of the tournament hasn’t been about winning or losing, but bringing the community together.
“We’ve been doing this for eight years now,” Jensen said.
“The whole point of it has always been to bring the three schools together and play against teams they don’t normally get to see.
“Originally, this used to be called the Cobra Classic before I came to Cochrane High. It took a number of years to get the event expanded to Bow Valley High and St. Tim’s, so we couldn’t have kept the old name, because I don’t think they would have been too happy about that.”
What does the future now have in store for the event?
“We’re not going to expand any larger,” Jensen said. “There are some tournaments across the province that have 12 and 16-team draws, but we don’t want to get that big since we’re limited by the facilities we have. We have three gyms and a fourth if we really need it.
“The goal is to just keep making the experience better for the players, keep bringing in teams that schools in Rocky View don’t normally get to play against, and add little things here and there.
“When the season’s over I’ll be looking to sit down with athletic directors at Bow Valley and St. Tim’s, and bounce some ideas off of them.”
