Indian basketball in Pt. Alberni- what happened?

There was a great Indian basketball tournament at the Alberni Athletic Hall last weekend. It was an open tournament with both ladies and men’s teams and was sponsored by the Hesquiaht Lady Braves.

I've watched Indian basketball tournaments for the last ten years since moving home. They always happen at this time of year. There was something different about this one though as I watched the games and I couldn't quite put my finger on why.

The game changed a bit over the years. The shoes got more expensive and were supposedly better. It's funny though but I remember players from way back who wore Chuck Taylor’s who scored more points than guys who wore those shock-type shoes today. The shorts are longer and baggier than in the past. We've gone from short shorts and long socks to short socks and long shorts. Maybe it was the tattoos some guys had, actually a lot girls had. Guys and girls from yester-year had them too. Usually they were each others initials. The artwork looked pretty sketchy back then, but I guess so considering it was painted on with indian-ink and a pin. No it wasn't the tattoos. No, there was something different about the players who were playing.

The players looked bigger and faster today but it wasn't enough of a difference to stand out. One young kid I watched playing was a tall skilled centre, but so too was Darrel Charelson from back in the day. A quick, skilled guard was darting around the floor, but Rick Thomas was every bit as good.

Watching the games I couldn't help but think teams from 20 and 30- years a ago could hold their own against today's teams. The game scores weren't any higher today than they were back then. Players from then could match up pretty evenly with any of today's players. And that's when it hit me. All I had for a frame of reference was players from 20-30 years ago.

I looked at the teams playing on the floor, the teams waiting to get on the floor, and players from other teams and I was struck by the fact that there were very few players in this Port Alberni tournament who were actually from Port Alberni.

There was one team from Port Alberni playing- the Hawks captained by Ivan Thomas of Tseshaht. There were players from Port on his team like Josh Fred and Bobby Rupert. Other than the Hawks there was no one else and that blew me away because I remember a time when there were nothing but teams from Port Alberni playing basketball.

I could think of 8 teams off the top of my head that used to play out of Port Alberni. I could also think of 4 junior teams which played out of Port Alberni back then too. The Hawks were the only team around today and I could not think of one junior team of note which was currently playing out of Port. In fact, I don't think there has been one indian team playing out of Port in the last 10 to 15 years.

Of the teams which used to play out of Port Alberni none of the players still played basketball. In fact, none of the former players ever got into coaching. I couldn't think of any of their kids who took after them and played ball. Tseshaht for instance no longer has men’s, women’s, or junior teams. Gone too are the Arrows, Warriors, Braves, or Hoyas from town. And the Friendship center no longer has junior girls or boys teams either .

Out of all those teams and all those players how could basketbball have died here the way it did?

In fact, I sat thinking about the answers to this subject more than I watched that last game, which no one from Port Alberni played in incidentally.

What happened, and why?