Reflecting on Coal Bowl

Basketball, culture and community are all part of annual tournament

Coaches with the Yarmouth and Shelburne teams that took part in this year’s Coal Bowl Classic basketball tournament in Cape Breton say it was quite a week and they were impressed with the event.

The Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School Vikings and the Shelburne Regional High School Rebels each went 2-2 in the annual tournament in New Waterford.

“We had an amazing time,” said Dana Andrews- Cunningham, head coach of the YCMHS boys team. “The people were very welcoming.”

This was the 36th year for the Coal Bowl tournament, an event where the participating teams – aside from playing basketball – get to take part in various cultural and community activities.

“We visited the Miners Museum and the Fortress of Louisbourg,” Andrews-Cunningham said. “All the teams participated in a community service event with Sobeys in New Waterford. The teams each went to bag groceries, take groceries to cars for the customers and greeted the customers as they shopped.”

Said Bill Slack, who coached the Shelburne boys in this year’s Coal Bowl, “It was a good week. We had a tour of the mines in Glace Bay and the boys really enjoyed that.”

Slack related a touching moment that came the day after a game where the Shelburne players had handed out roses to some elderly people in the stands. Many of them likely have been volunteering with the tournament for a long time, he said.

“One lady actually the next day was in tears,” Slack said. “She hugged me and said she wanted to meet the boy who gave her the rose because she had been doing it for 36 years and never got a rose.”

As for the games, Shelburne’s Daniel Slack was among the tournament standouts. He led the Rebels in scoring in all four of their games and was named to the tournament’s first all-star team.

One of his teammates, Kyler Hemeon, helped the Rebels win the tournament’s skills competi- Three of the Coal Bowl tournament all-stars, from left, Yarmouth’s Dylan Smith, Avon View’s Ryan Blackburn and Shelburne’s Daniel Slack. tion by hitting a half-court shot. “Overall, it was a very good ex- perience,” said Bill Slack. “I’m very proud of my boys.”

(Slack was filling in as coach for Darren Jacklin, the regular Shelburne coach, who couldn’t make the trip.)

The following are game-bygame results for Yarmouth and Shelburne, the only two tri-county teams in this year’s Coal Bowl:

Yarmouth results (in chronological order)

Yarmouth 75 – Avon View 56. Dylan Smith was the top Yarmouth scorer with 26 points and was named the game’s MVP. (Smith laterwould be named to the tournament’s second all-star team.) Noah Wilcox had 24 points for the Vikings.

Yarmouth 72 – Memorial High School 66. Wilcox had 21 points and YCMHS teammate Matt MacPherson had 17. MacPherson was game MVP.

SAERC 53 – Yarmouth 47. Dylan Smith was the top Viking scorer with 20 points.

Holy Trinity Catholic High School 71 – Yarmouth 58. Matt MacPherson had 17 points, Skyler Baxter had 14.

Shelburne results

Hants North 93 – Shelburne 65 (Daniel Slack had 17 points.)

Shelburne 104 – Cabot Education Centre 76. (Slack had 34 points and was game MVP and teammate Oliver Harding had 16.)

Breton Education Centre 79 – Shelburne 66. (Slack had 25 points.)

Shelburne 96 – Polyvalente de L’Ancienne-Lorette 59 (Slack had 31 points.)