Wolverines excited and ‘humbled’ to return to LIT

The Winston Knoll Wolverines are poised to snap a 6,564-day drought.

Winston Knoll’s senior boys basketball team has not appeared in the Luther Invitational Tournament since Feb. 17, 2001, when the Magrath (Alta.) Zeniths edged the Steve Burrows-coached Wolverines 87-84 in the championship game.

Some of the Wolverines’ current players hadn’t even been born when the team last played in LIT. But the entire team, and the school, will be alive for Thursday’s senior boys game against the Winnipeg Sturgeon Heights Huskies. The Day 1 contest is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., at Luther College High School’s Semple Gymnasium.

“It’s huge (to be at LIT),” Wolverines head coach Michael Silvius said. “I kind of understand it, because I’ve been to a lot of LITS as a spectator. I haven’t been there as a player or coach, so it’s pretty exciting for me, but I don’t know if the players actually understand how big of a deal it is, to be honest.

“I think once they play on Thursday at 4:30, they’re going to understand how big a deal it is, but right now they’re kind of like, ‘Oh, it’s another tournament.’”

Winston Knoll and the Leboldus Golden Suns qualified by winning pre-lit finals in January. In that sense, the Wolverines’ players are familiar with the surroundings. But the tournament atmosphere cannot truly be experienced until opening day.

“Even being there (Wednesday) morning (for the LIT media conference), it’s a completely different feel once you’re involved in the tournament,” Silvius said. “Once you’re a team that’s in it, it gives you goose bumps.”

Silvius was nearly in the tournament as a player.

In 2006, he was part of a Wolverines team that lost 69-66 to the Sheldon-williams Spartans in a pre-lit final. Sheldon’s Kolten Solomon hit a game-winning three-pointer with 16 seconds left.

That game was, in the recollection of Silvius, a “heartbreaker.” However, that edition of the Wolverines went on to compete at Hoopla — the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association basketball championships.

“Last year, we made Hoopla for the first time since 2006, so this is kind of the next milestone for our school,” Silvius said. “And hopefully it’s sort of foreshadowing, because the last time Knoll won a city or provincial championship in senior boys basketball was that same year, 2001, that we last appeared at LIT.

“It’s a pretty exciting opportunity for our guys and I’m certainly very humbled by the experience so far.”

Silvius graduated from Winston Knoll Collegiate in 2007 and spent the next four years coaching the Wolverines’ junior boys basketball team. He is in his eighth season as the head coach of the senior boys. squad

“By far, of the 12 years I’ve coached, this is easily the hardest-working team I’ve ever coached,” he said.

The 67th annual LIT concludes Saturday, when the finals are set for 6:30 p.m. (senior girls) and 8:30 p.m. (senior boys) at the 16-team event.