Prairie school hoops a true family affair
It’s been 25 years since the small town of Asquith, Sask. — population 603 — last sent a team to the provincial high school girls basketball championships.
This year initially didn’t look to be any different. Their season was almost squashed before it started, when just six girls showed up for the first practice of the year.
But the husband- and- wife coaching duo of Perry and Vicki Quittenbaum wouldn’t give up.
With two daughters already on the team — Brittany, a senior, and Erica, in Grade 10 — they approached the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association to seek clearance for young Stephanie Quittenbaum, who’s in Grade 8, to play on the depleted roster for the season.
The SHSAA said yes and when the little-squad- that- almostwasn’t added another player to their roster shortly afterward, they had eight players and a team. Two more girls joined as the season moved along, so now they’re at 10 — and the Lord Asquith Athletics are competing at their provincial tournament, known as Hoopla, for the first time in a generation.
“It’s every small town coach’s nightmare: are you going to have enough to make a team every year?” says Perry Quittenbaum, whose school has 28 girls in Grades 10-12.
Small- town basketball poses other challenges in Saskatchewan. Every winter, teams criss-cross the province, seeking games and opponents.
Perry Quittenbaum estimates his team — known affectionately as the “Baum Squad” around Asquith — travelled more than 4,000 kilometres over the course of the season. The girls competed at six tournaments, compiling a 21-3 record.
The Athletics have been close to qualifying for Hoopla the last few years before this year’s breakthrough. Brittany will savour every moment of Hoopla, win or lose.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she says.
“It’s very special to have my mom and my dad coaching, to play alongside both my sisters. That’s something most people don’t get to experience.”