PREECEVILLE — A Preeceville School senior basketball player will compete in a province-wide all-star game.
Tristan Acosta was one of several players from 1A, 2A and 3A schools named to the Basketball Saskatchewan Senior All-Star Classic, meant to honour the best graduating high school basketball players across the province.
The Grade 12 basketball player said he’s excited to play in the game, which is in Saskatoon on April 7.
“I thought HOOPLA was my last game, but when I got to go to the all-star game, I had a chance to play one more high school basketball game and that made me happy,” he said.
More than 300 players were nominated for the game. Acosta’s nomination was supported by his coach Jay Steppan as well as through the Preeceville community through Instagram.
Acosta’s interest in basketball started young. He said he started playing the game around Grade 2.
“I had lots of other friends that played basketball and they would always come outside and play on the basketball court. I always joined them. That's how I got hooked into basketball.”
When he entered the secondary school years, Acosta joined the basketball team.
At the start of this year’s basketball season, neither Acosta nor his coach were thinking about competing in HOOPLA, the provincial senior basketball finals.
“When we started winning our games and practicing together, we started to build this chemistry in our team, and that's how we made it to HOOPLA,” Acosta said. “We just played as a team. Everyone had a role.”
“Other people thought we wouldn't make it that far but we proved them wrong.”
While HOOPLA was cancelled due to the labour dispute between teachers and the province, the Preeceville School Senior Boys did compete in a modified one-day tournament. They placed fourth after losing the bronze medal game against Norquay.
Acosta was a point guard for the team and served in a leadership role.
In a previous article, Steppan told the Preeceville Progress than Acosta and the other graduating Grade 12 students – JP Somera, Noah Carroll, Matthew Korney and Nathan Newbery – contributed a lot to the team and program throughout the years.
The all-star game will take place at Saskatoon’s Evan Hardy Collegiate and also features a three-point shooting competition and player awards.
