How popular would it be? Would it be a success? And would they raise enough money for a planned annual scholarship?
The answer to those questions? Very, absolutely and most certainly yes.
In fact, the tournament – which was hosted by the Hillcrest Ladies league on July 6 of last year – raised so much money multiple scholarships were made available after only a single event.
On Thursday, three local athletes received the first of those honours.
Central’s Sage McCulloch and Vanier’s Madison Thul were joined by Peacock’s Olivia Mowchenko in accepting $500 scholarships during a special presentation at the Hillcrest.
“We’re very proud to be able to do this, we have a really great ladies league here and they’re very civic minded and wanted to do something for young women,” said Hillcrest Ladies league president Bev Barber. “They fully supported it through the whole thing and it was absolutely wonderful.”
Each of the recipients came from a solid sports background: Thul played fastball for the Regina 222s last summer and won gold with the Vanier girls soccer team; Mowchenko suited up for the Toilers city champion volleyball team and competed in track and field; McCulloch took the field for the Cyclones in soccer and started for the senior basketball team.
Applicants also wrote an essay discussing the role sports and academics have had in their lives, how sports will impact their future and the leadership and confidence they built through sports.
That athletics-based focus was for a very good reason, said scholarship coordinator Deb Negraiff.
“The focus on young women and their development in sports is important,” she said. “The more we support these young women in sports, the more it will help them. And they don’t have to go on and play sports, it’s what sport does for their life later on.”
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic will prevent the second annual tournament from occurring next month. But there’s little question that when it returns in 2021, things will be even bigger and better given how well things went the first time around.
“When we started the tournament process we had no idea what would happen and there was a lot of nailbiting when you don’t know,” Barber said. “But two weeks before the tournament, we were sold out and we could have had a lot more participants… Everybody that day was so supportive of our cause, they spent money buying tickets and our sponsors were fabulous. They supported us in any way they could and it made a huge difference.”
