BSSI: Coaches see value in early-season trip

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This article was published 11/12/2024 (280 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steve Shields knows the best way to kick off a high school basketball season.

He has experienced it as a player and as a coach. So when he was asked to coach Regina’s Michael A. Riffel Royals varsity boys, he called up his old coach to see if there was an open spot in the Brandon Sun Spartan Invitational.

Shields repped Neelin Spartan green from 2005 to 2008, spending three seasons under coach Don Thomson on the varsity squad before a lengthy post-secondary career including a couple of years with the Brandon University volleyball team and three on the University of Regina Cougars hoops’ squad.

“It’s a really good opportunity for us early in our season to play some challenging games against different teams, not always the same teams, especially with the way our league is set up in Regina where we play the same four teams a bunch of times,” said Shields, who spent five years coaching Regina’s Campbell Tartans, taking them to the BSSI a few times as well.

Shields took a few seasons off of high school ball and focused on club and post-secondary prep work with local athletes. However, the opportunity at Riffel included working with some of his favourite athletes, who he’d developed strong connections with.

Establishing those relationships is a priority for Shields — one he learned from Thomson’s coaching style.

“T was a demanding coach but he really put a lot of time into developing the relationships with us as players,” Shields said.

“He was a very demanding coach but the reason he’s so successful is he went out of his way to make sure I knew he cared about me as a person, not just as a basketball player. Even though he held me to a very high standard and was sometimes pretty hard on me, it was because he saw my potential and knew I needed to be pushed to get where I wanted to get to. “I’ve taken some Xs and Os stuff too, but the biggest thing is making sure my players know that I care about them so that when we do get into situations where I have to hold them accountable, our relationships are strong enough that they understand it’s not a personal thing, it’s a ‘trying to help you’ thing.”

The Royals take on the Miles Macdonell Buckeyes today at 7:30 p.m. They draw another tough matchup in the Oak Park Raiders on Friday at 9 a.m., then get the one Shields is most excited about as he’ll play a good friend and former Bobcat teammate Garrett Popplestone and the Vincent Massey Vikings’ squad he assistant coaches on their home floor at 2:15 p.m.

• • •

The Royals are one of three Regina teams jumping on a bus for Brandon this morning. Shields’ former team from Campbell and the Martin Monarchs are among some of the tougher teams in the Victoria Inn Division (Tier 1).

It’s the first trip to the BSSI for the Monarchs and coach Rob Thomson, though they’ve already had a hot start to their season.

Martin lost its home tournament final two weeks ago, then headed to Saskatoon and won the BOWLT Classic.

The BSSI format was certainly appealing to Thomson when he heard other Saskatchewan coaches chatting about it.

“The five games is a draw for sure. You’re travelling so you want to get as many games in as you can and it forces you to use your bench,” Thomson said.

“Some of the teams in the past we’d be lucky to have a depth of seven players, then the eighth to 12th were maybe multi-sport athletes playing basketball for the sake of playing it.

“This year, we’re much deeper. We actually had to make cuts where we had guys that have played basketball for a number of years or played club basketball.”

Thomson also noted these events lead to players spending more time together bonding than they will for much of the 2025 portion of the season, when the focus is more on league play and prep for provincials.

“You want to have those bonds formed as quick as you can,” Thomson said. “I think that’s the best recipe for success for teams.”

• • •

Dakota’s Dean Favoni echoes the sentiment.

One of the longest-standing supporters of the BSSI, Favoni has brought his Lancers out since the second edition in 2005.

They’ve returned to Winnipeg with the championship plaque twice, including last year after a handful of close calls.

“It’s a great way to begin the year. Teams are just starting out, they’ve got a new group of guys with them and it’s a great way to have some team bonding,” Favoni said.

“You get away from home for a while, you’re together on the road, guys are rooming with each other and spending time out of school together so that’s a good way to develop and enhance your team culture.

“For coaches, it’s a great indicator of where you are in relation to everybody else.”

For Favoni, it’s also a great chance to connect with other coaches from around the province. With most of Dakota’s games in Winnipeg and few overnight stays, most coaches are headed straight home after the final buzzer.

But they’ll have their annual BSSI coaches gathering tonight to unwind and catch up.

“The social connection and the time we get to spend with each other just chatting about basketball … is also a great way to kick off the year,” Favoni said.

The BSSI quickly became the first big event for AAAA teams who wanted to make a statement to the rest of Manitoba. If you thought you had a chance to win the big one in March, you told everyone by leaving the Wheat City a winner in December.

The field has admittedly thinned out, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic led to some reluctance to send school teams on the road, but a handful of powerhouse programs are back.

Favoni’s group is one of them, and they aren’t just here for fun this weekend.

“It’s a challenge for us because our volleyball programs typically go later than lots of other schools. We arrive at BSSI with less practices under our belt than many other teams so we’re not nearly as polished or have had the same number of days to prepare or put in the same systems as we would like to. The practices leading up to BSSI are a crash course and we try to get as much stuff as we can get done … then show up and learn on the fly.

“We do try to look at it as a ‘business trip,’ we’re going there to get better, we’re going there to compete and it’s not just a trip to get away,” Favoni said, adding a whole host of reasons keep the BSSI on his calendar.

“It’s the camaraderie that I receive from the other coaches … it’s the blitz of five games — it’s good bang for your buck. To me, it’s a no-brainer on our schedule that we’re coming to BSSI.

“I’ve known Don Thomson, we’ve been friends for 30 years. If he’s going to continue to run a tournament, I’m going to continue to support it and Dakota’s going to be there.”

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