Local courts are still reverberating from quality basketball and our trademark community spirit displayed during the ASAA  3A provincial basketball tournaments hosted here Mar. 15-17.

Cochrane High was the host of both the senior girls and boys provincials and with the help of our schools gave Cochrane a chance to witness some of the best basketball in the province.

"I thought it was amazing," says tournaments organizer Sandy Green. "All of the kids had a lot of fun, there was great sportsmanship and great basketball. And, wow, it was very good basketball this weekend."

"The sportsmanship all around was wonderful to see, the kids just came out to play basketball.

In all, 12 teams in both divisions came from across Alberta for a chance to be crowned champs. In the end, Edmonton Christian overcame Camrose Composite for the boys' title and W. R. Meyers High for the girls.

Crowds were solid, too.

"We had good crowds, it was pretty busy. Saturday morning was our slowest, but as the games progressed it just grew and grew and grew."

The tournament also featured the first ever unified basketball game during a provincial championship in Canada. Diverse Learners and Able Body Learners from Cochrane High and Airdrie's Bert Church played a 3-on-3 game just prior to the bronze medal games on Saturday.

Cochrane High stepped up to put on the game after the Alberta Schools Athletic Association put the idea on the floor.

The tournament featured the first ever Unified 3-on-3 Basketball Game in Canada at a provincials. (Courtesy of Cochrane High)

"Knowing the group and the people that we have here and our staff support, I jumped at the opportunity to host it," says Green.

She believes other ASAA provincials hosts will take note of the achievement and suspects others will follow the example set.

It's this confidence in her school staff and community partners that helped to make it feasible to host provincial championships and Cochrane High has hosted several over the years, although this is their first basketball provincials.

"It's wonderful that we have such an involved community and the support we get from them. We really couldn't do it without the involvement of our community," she says.

Likewise, she said it's impossible to list names of all the staff members at the school who played a role and she also appreciated to help received from Bow Valley High School, St. Timothy High School and the Mitford Middle School.

"It's a huge undertaking, but without everyone giving a helping hand it wouldn't have gone as well as it did.There are so many people I don't even think I can name them all."

While weather threatened to hamper the event, in the end, Friday's heavy snow became only a minor inconvenience.

Cochrane High senior boys and girls teams showed they deserved to be in the tournament. The senior girls only lost one game to the eventual silver medallist team from St. Peter the Apostle, of Spruce Grove. They finished fifth after coming into the tournament ranked 10th. It was their highest finish since 2004 when they came third.

The senior boys finished ninth after ranking 11th coming into the tournament. Losing their first game meant the highest they could finish was ninth and they won the rest of their games to make it so.