Once a Raider, always a Raider.
The blue and white lives on after graduation from Davidson School with the Raiders senior men’s basketball team racking up win after win in the Saskatoon Senior Men’s Basketball League (SRML). The team is comprised of former Davidson high school players now plying their trade in Saskatoon, including two current coaches of the Davidson School junior and senior basketball teams.
“We’re a good team,” said Ian Kadlec, who helps coach the Davidson junior team and is a Raiders point guard, both then and now. “Every team has a couple good guys on it, but once we shut down on their guys, our team is more balanced. The level is not quite as good as we can play against.”
Sporting jerseys sponsored by Davidson Western Sales, the senior men’s Raiders have so far amassed an impressive 11-0 record with four games left to play. The club usually competes against other SRML teams at Walter Murray High on the south side of Saskatoon on Sundays with their next game coming up the morning of Feb. 17 against the team Make It Rain.
“The league is fairly competitive,” said Kattlyn Williams, former and current Raiders point guard, along with a being a coach of the school senior ball team. “Any higher and you’d start getting into Huskies players or college ball, so it’s a pretty competitive men’s league.”
Williams said the average age of players on the Raiders is 25 and the team is comprised of members of Craik, Outlook and Saskatoon as well. He said the team, which is currently in E division, is looking to win the championship this year moving them up a division and into better competition for next season.
“We have playoffs after the season ends (in late February),” he said. “We’re hoping to win in playoffs.”
Kadlec said the club is just “taking it one game at a time” and he doesn’t want to look too far ahead, but the team as it is gets the guys in some action and gets them back to their roots, which is a good thing.
“The team is pretty cool,” he said. “When we do our chant when we go on the court, we do our ‘Raiders on three’ chant from high school.”
Williams said anyone looking to come out and support the club could head down to the Walter Murray Gym to see them play. He said they currently get around 10 people from Davidson over for their games now and could always use more.
“When people find out we’re playing ball, they’re pretty excited because they used to watch us back in high school,” he said. “They could come watch us if they want.”