Bedford Road Invitational Tournament
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The Bedford Road Invitational Tournament (BRIT) is one of the most prestigious boys high school basketball tournaments in all of Canada. It takes place every January at Bedford Road Collegiate in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The current format has 12 schools take part in the tournament. Some notable alumni of BRIT include Martin Riley, Brent Charleton, Karl Tilleman, John Hatch, Byron Tokarchuk, Eric Mobley, and Robert Sacre.
[edit] History
BRIT began in the fall of 1968 with only Saskatoon city school invited to the tournament. The following year, schools from Regina and Weyburn were invited making it a provincial wide tournament. In 1972, schools from outside of Saskatchewan were invitied for the first time. Winnipeg Sisler and Calgary E.P. Scarlett were invited and the magnitude of the tournament began to grow with the inviting of out of province teams.
In 1975 the tournament moved from December to its current January time frame. Teams from British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec made their first appearances during the late 70's. In 1988, the first American team entered the tournament, the New York Gauchos and they became the first foreign school to win the tournament. In 1998, the tournament format expanded to the current 12 team format. In 2004, the first non North American team entered the tournament as Scots College came from Sydney, Australia to take part in the tournament. BRIT is one of the major sporting events on the Saskatoon sporting calendar. The tournament is attended by scouts of many colleges and universities as BRIT is one of the premier high school tournaments in all of Canada.
In 2008, the tournament celebrated its 40th anniversary with teams from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. Teams from Nova Scotia and Taiwan were scheduled to participate, but dropped out a month in advance.
[edit] Champions
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1968 - Saskatoon Bedford Road |
1998 - Vancouver Carson Graham |
