16 teams ready for energy, experience of annual LIT
Basketball coaches understand the importance of subs — whether the reference is to backup players or foot-long sandwiches.
Just ask Luther Lions senior boys basketball head coach Tanner Brightman, who vividly recalls one particular visit to the Luther Invitational Tournament as a player with Balfour.
“In 2011, we played against Harry Ainlay (from Edmonton),” Brightman recalled during Wednesday’s pre-LIT media conference at Luther College High School’s Semple Gymnasium. “We got to our locker-room before the game and had subs. The players were pounding subs, even though they were supposed to be for after the game. “We were a little sluggish.”
But not for long. The Balfour players were soon energized by the atmosphere at LIT.
“The experience is what you remember,” said Brightman, the first-year head coach of the Lions.
Brightman played in two LITs, as did Tyler Wright, an assistant coach with the Miller Marauders. Wright was a member of the Riffel Royals in 1996 and ’97.
“The coolest experience I had was in Grade 9,” Wright said. “I went to the Luther game at 8 o’clock. The lights went off and the spotlight was on the players
The lights went off and the spotlight was on the players (during introductions) and the music was playing . ... It was a special experience and I wasn’t even playing.
(during introductions) and the music was playing. I was thinking, ‘What’s happening here?’
“It was a special experience and I wasn’t even playing.”
The 66th annual LIT runs from Thursday to Saturday. Over those three days, a new tradition will be established in the form of an eightteam senior girls draw. As usual, there will also be eight senior boys teams.
This is the seventh year for female teams competing at LIT. Their ranks have grown from two teams, to four, and now to eight.
Semple Gymnasium and the Merlis Belsher Heritage Centre will host the action.
The finals are scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. (senior girls) and 8 p.m. (senior boys) in the Semple Gymnasium, which first housed an LIT game in 2015.