Skip to content

First Man-Up Basketball Challenge a success

Lacombe recently played host to the first annual Man-Up Basketball Challenge.
3355lacombeexpressBasketball060613
VICTORIOUS – The blue team poses with medals and coaches after being crowned gold medal champions of the first ever Man-Up Basketball Challenge.

Lacombe recently played host to the first annual Man-Up Basketball Challenge.

Presented by the Alberta Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in partnership with the U.S. Consulate and CUC, the event was a four-day camp designed to help players improve their basketball but also help players learn to use their skills on the court in other areas of life as well.

Players were broken up into teams and played a tournament during the camp as well where the Blue Team were crowned the champions, being the first ever players to lay claim to the Man-Up Basketball Challenge Trophy.

Man-Up featured much more than basketball. Basketball greats Gerald Kazanowski and Jerome Williams took part in the Man-Up Basketball challenge by sharing their knowledge of the sport with the younger players. Not only that, but Williams and Kazanowski also did some speaking and told players of life lessons they had learned through sport.

The Man-Up Basketball Challenge began the morning of May 30 with a ‘net-cutting’ ceremony in place of a ribbon cutting. Guest speakers such as Alberta Conference President Kenneth Wiebe, CUC Vice-President Joy Fehr and Kazanowski. On June 2, the camp concluded with the presentation of the Man-Up Challenge trophy, medals to the top two teams in the tournaments and awards to recognize the tournament MVP and other players of special significance.

About 50 players participated in this year’s Challenge. While most of the players were local, some players came from as far away as Yellowknife.