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Basketball coach touched the lives of countless students before losing battle with cancer in 2004
For some people sports is simply about the thrill of competition, but when eight men’s and women’s teams take to the floor this weekend for the Thom Elniski Memorial tournament at M.E. Lazerte High School, the game of basketball will once again mean much more.
Named in honour of former M.E. Lazerte coach Thom Elniski, who passed away in 2004 after a battle with cancer, the three-day hoops tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday, is a reminder of the coach’s legacy.
While Elniski touched the lives of countless students over his career with the Edmonton Public School Board, where he first started in 1973, his impact may have been greatest at Lazerte where he helped students like Andrew Parker find their paths in life.
“He was basically my dad at school as well as a coach. He’d look out for me,” said Parker, a Lazerte grad who’s been helping run the tournament since it started four years ago. “I was getting into a lot of trouble, hanging out with the wrong crowd, but he basically kept me out of trouble, kept me on the straight and narrow. He was able to help me get back on the road and take my talent to the highest level possible.”
As a player that went on to success with both the University of Alberta Golden Bears and the Edmonton Energy of the International Basketball League, Parker couldn’t have done it without Elniski.
While Elniski helped Parker turn into a player ready to make the jump
He didn’t just coach me in the game, he coached me
about life.
Andrew Parker on Thom Elniski
to the collegiate level, it was a moment off the court Parker remembers as the turning point of his career.
“He didn’t just coach me in the game, he coached me about life,” Parker explained. “There was a time I was in a lot of trouble and I was on the brink of getting kicked out of school and he just came into the office and asked me, ‘How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the guy who had all the talent, got kicked out of school and ended up doing nothing with his life, or do you want to be the guy who went to college, went to play pro and had all of his dreams realized?’
“That was the moment in my life that everything changed and I just decided I wanted to be the best person I could be.”
For Parker, the loss of Elniski in 2004 was especially difficult, but helped inspire him to try to keep his coach’s legacy alive through the game of basketball.
“After he passed away it was kind of my call to be a mentor to these kids instead of just sitting there and being sad and wishing that he was here. I understood that now it was my time to pick up the torch and hold it high, in the same kind of way,” Parker said.
Started in 2006, first as a junior high tournament, the Elniski Memorial has emerged as a major community event, with many alumni coming back to make sure the tournament is a success.
“It’s a chance for us to really come together and especially for our alumni to come back and help out these young kids. That’s the main thing that I really want to be a part of, is getting the alumni involved and showing these kids that, ‘you think you’re in this world alone, well we thought that for a time until we were able to come together as a team, as a community and then become productive members of society. Now we’re going to show you how to get there.’
“Last year we had about 100 alumni come out and support the guys. Our alumni has guys like Terry Paranych, who’s a big real estate guy in the city, Ed Joseph, he played for the Edmonton Eskimos, my brother Steve who won a national title at the U of A, myself and the list goes on and on. There are so many great alumni people who have stepped up.”
With a scholarship fund at Lazerte also started in Elniski’s name, the coach’s legacy of giving back is in good hands with Parker and the rest of the alumni making sure the man who touched their lives continues to give back.
“Our tournament is special, because it’s about our coach who passed away. His whole history was about giving back to the kids and that’s what we have as a school. That’s what is different about our alumni,” Parker said. “We had that relationship with that man.”
The Thom Elniski Memorial Tournament tips off Thursday afternoon, with the finals slated for Saturday afternoon. All games will be played at M.E. Lazerte High School.