Bob Hughes

EDITOR'S COMMENTARY

LIT maintains its impressive qualities

Some things, they never change. They did it again. Just like the other time, and the time before that and the time before that. On and on, each making its new mark, always fitting in with the old.

It's a plot, only the names changing, a ritual, almost a spiritual kind of indulgence.

This is at the corner of Dewdney and Royal and it is Saturday night, it is the third weekend in February, and all is right with the world that finds itself wandering late into the fog of a winter evening.

It's now 47 years old, this baby of John Chomay's, and as babies are supposed to do, it's grown into something warm, and wonderful, and gripping, and enticing.

They wrapped up the 47th annual Luther Invitational Tournament before the usual packed house on Saturday night, the honour roll showing that for the second straight year the Balfour Redmen were the cream of the high school crop.

It is not always the case, you should understand, that a Regina high school basketball team be the chosen one in the LIT. Championships come not easily for Regina high school teams in a tournament that always draws the best Western Canadian high school teams, and sometimes, such as in 1967, the best Canadian teams.

Fact is, Regina teams have won only 14 of the 47 LITs that have gone into the history books, Luther winning the first one in 1953, when Luther athletic director John Chomay thought up the idea of having the LIT.

Fact is, there is nothing quite like the LIT anywhere in Canada.

Every year, the teams change. Every year, the names change. Every year, the faces change.

But what stays that same is the spirit of the LIT that wraps its arms around the students of Luther, who organize the tournament, and raises the level of play of those who come to play in it. It is an experience none of them -- players and students -- ever forget.

If you were there on Saturday night, for the first time, the second time, for the 30th time, you know.

Some things, they never change.

There are cars parked on both sides of Royal Street, along Dewdney Avenue, in the parking lots, and you wonder how all these people will possibly fit into the gymnasium.

But they do.

There are students waiting inside the door, to take your tickets, sell you a program (for 25 cents), and ask you to wipe your shoes dry before you enter the gym.

There is the Luther gymnasium, a tapestry of colour and banners and signs. There is a huge banner strung atop the stage at the east end welcoming this year's LIT Special Guest Ron Pettigrew.

There are fans from Luther and throughout the city, even outside the city, students, parents, alumni, fans, jammed into the bleachers, often cheering for both teams.

There is never silence. When there is a break in play, there is a kid dancing his heart out.

There is Ed Robinson, the LIT's walking historian, who proudly proclaims that this is the 45th year he's been the public address announcer at the LIT.

There is Ed's voice at the start of the final extolling the virtues of the LIT, reminding fans that there is no booing at an LIT, that there is silence and no movement when a player is shooting a foul shot. This, Ed explains, is about sportsmanship, and once into the game, Ed detects a "boo" from the crowd and swiftly and effectively issues a scolding.

There are the teams, Balfour and Edmonton's Harry Ainlay Titans, so worked up at the start of the game that the play becomes a blur with no speed limits.

There are the coaches, midway through their own seasons, trying to squeeze from their players playoff performances. They stand and pace, sit and squirm.

But always, there are the Luther students.

They do it all, the way they have for 47 years now, passing the torch from one generation of high schoolers to the next, their enthusiasm and dedication to the LIT never fading.

It is, after all is said and done, their show. Some things, they never change.

Hughes is Editor of the Leader-Post