Annual Luther Invitational Tournament set to get underway for 68th year

While the theme of the 68th Luther Invitational Tournament is looking to the future, the event will honour the past.

The annual invitational high school basketball tournament will get underway Thursday at Luther College High School and will feature 16 teams (eight boys and eight girls) from across the prairies, all vying for a first-place finish.

“We try to get as many great teams as we can,” tournament director Troy Casper said Wednesday. “There’s great teams across Western Canada …

“We really try to get a high calibre of basketball to really challenge (the teams). (As some coaches said) this is a bit of a platform for them to (springboard) from their season and into playoffs.”

The tournament will also be honouring the 1990 Luther Lions teams that won the championship over the Balfour Redmen. It was only the second time the Lions had won the tournament and they have won it only once (2006) since.

The tournament will also welcome former Luther teacher and girls basketball coach Angela Tillier as the special guest.

She can recall teaching some of the players on the 1990 team and is looking forward to seeing them at the tournament this weekend.

“It makes you feel old but it’s also very rewarding to think you may have had a small part in their growing up and their memories from when they were in high school,” Tillier said.

Tillier moved to Luther in 1987 and taught at the school for 27 years.

“It’s such a humbling experience (to be honoured). I just feel so fortunate to be among some of the people who were on that list,” Tillier said. “It means so much being my home school and knowing how much work the Luther community puts into this.”

The tournament comes together due to the hard work put in by the Luther students who organize the tournament. Tillier has been a part of the process for 34 years.

“The traditions at Luther are kept alive by the school itself — the faculty and the staff — but also the students,” Tillier said. “The tradition lives because the students buy in to the tournament and they get on committees.

“They learn life lessons through their work on committees and their hard work has really transformed the tournament into what it is today.”

About 80 Grade 11 and 12 students take the time to organize the event. The 2020 edition of the tournament runs until Saturday.