It has taken no time at all for the Dolphin Park Classic to feel right at home at its new venue.
The 32nd edition of the popular 4-on-4 basketball tournament tips off on the weekend for the second straight year on the outdoor courts of the South Arm Community Centre. The Williams Road venue is a short distance from where it all started, until the event simply became too big for the tiny neighbourhood park.
After a good run at the Thompson Community Centre, organizers looked to bring the Classic closer to its original roots. South Arm happened to be where tourney founders Bira Bindra, Bruce Watson, Tony Wong Hen and Taj Johal often met up decades earlier. The two high-quality courts built in 2011 made the decision easy.
It’s been smooth transition thanks to the efforts of South Arm Community Centre area coordinator Steve Mahon and others.
“It’s very exciting to be here again and we can’t say enough about the support we have got from Steve and the entire staff,” said Watson. “It was such a smooth transition last year and just a sense of belonging that this was the right place for us to be. We had feedback from a lot of people telling us the exact same thing.”
Watson has been busy the last few weeks finalizing the tournament entries. When action gets underway Friday night, there will be 11 teams competing in the men’s division and five more in the women’s division.
AthElite will be back to defend their title and it’s a good bet longtime Dolphin standout and now team organizer Aman Heran will make sure the champs will be a formidable force again. Their biggest competition is expected to come from the usual suspects, including the X-Falcons. After a one-year hiatus, they return with some of Richmond’s best talent in the past decade, including Elliot Mason, Vijay Dhillon and Brody Greig.
Dolphin regulars Running Rebels (Steve Lee) and AIA (Marek Klassen) will also be in the title hunt. There will also be excellent university representation with longtime UBC head coach Kevin Hansen entering a team, the same with Thompson Rivers coach Scott Clark.
“There are active players who have been coming here the last five to seven years and we call that a ‘Dolphin generation.’ Everyone likes to play here and there definitely a loyalty factor to it,” added Watson.
The entire 2017 line-up of teams includes:
Men’s Division: XFalcons, Running Rebels, RNG, G2, Young Guns, AIA, AthElite, UBC, TRU, Blue Club Basketball and CBC.
Women’s Division: Chaos, Original Grandmas, TOKO, Underdog Queen’s, UFV.
The women’s final tips off 5 p.m. Sunday, followed by the three-point and slam dunk contest. The men’s final goes at 7:30 p.m.
The tournament has also teamed up with Richmond Youth Basketball League coordinator Jessy Dhillon to include a youth division for a second straight year. Featuring mostly talent from the popular city-run RYBL program, preliminary games took place Thursday and the playoffs are once again worked into the main Dolphin schedule, including the final at 4 p.m. Sunday.
For the full schedule, click here
