City hoops bragging rights are on the line again this week with the 23rd edition of the Surrey RCMP Basketball Classic.
Preliminary round action for seniors began Sunday while junior took to the court for the first time Monday.
The tournament is the largest of its kind in the province with 43 teams competing in the junior and senior age categories.
That's a long way from the eight squads that gathered at Queen Elizabeth Secondary for the first RCMP tourney 22 years ago.
"It's gotten this big because the will was there to do it," said long-time organizing committee member Kevin Deboice. "When we originally started this tournament, there were eight teams and it was limited to that because there were only eight schools who were really into basketball. Now everybody is into basketball so there are a lot more teams that want to be involved. We get a lot of calls from schools outside of Surrey who want to get into this tournament, but we have to tell them no because this tournament is, and always will be, all about basketball in Surrey."
The main draw and of the tournament takes place at Enver Creek Secondary with other games scattered at schools around the city. The semifinals begin at 5:45 p.m. Friday at Enver Creek with the final slated for 7:45 p.m. Saturday at the same venue. The junior boys title will be settled at noon Saturday at Enver Creek.
The biggest addition to this year's event is BMO coming aboard as the primary sponsor, replacing Coast Capital Savings. BMO's commitment involves a financial contribution and the banking giant will also have a presence at Saturday's finale.
On the court, last year's finalists Fleetwood Park and Tamanawis are the prohibitive favourites in the senior draw with Enver Creek, Lord Tweedsmuir, Southridge and North Surrey also expected to be in the hunt.
Deboice said predicting the tournament winners is a dangerous game given the emotional commitment of the players.
"The nice thing about this tournament is you never know who is going to come up big," he said. "There are always favourites, but because it's held in early January before a lot of teams have really established themselves, the outcome is not always predictable. Every year there is a team that gets hot and maybe plays their best basketball of the season. Part of that is the rivalry aspect because these kids look forward to this tournament just to prove who is the best in Surrey. They all know each other and in a lot of cases they're playing their buddies so all the kids are giving their best efforts."
For more information, visit www.surreybasketballclassic.com.