Unpredictable weather gave ANBT organizers cause for concern

The nasty weather has been a parallel story for the opening days of the ANBT, with organizers keeping a watchful eye on weather forecasts and road conditions as the numerous out of town teams made their way to Rupert.

This weekend’s winter storm and subsequent highway closures gave the All Native Basketball Tournament schedule maker a bit of extra work, as delayed arrivals by some of the eastern based teams made schedule changes the order of the day for Day one on Sunday.

Monday’s Daily News examined how the flow of the tournament was adjusted once the caravan of cars from Terrace arrived in town late Sunday afternoon.

Weather runs interference on ANBT
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Monday, February 11, 2008
Pages one and fourteen

Old man winter nearly took a bite out of the All-Native Basketball Tournament on Sunday afternoon.

Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Terrace was closed early Saturday afternoon, and was still shut down Sunday afternoon due to avalanche concerns and blizzard-like conditions, leaving several teams stuck in Terrace, including a handful of teams that were scheduled to play Sunday during the tournament's opening day.

But at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the highway was reopened and the rush to get to Prince Rupert began.
Meanwhile, the ANBT committee made some modifications to the schedule, pushing both the scheduled 4 p.m. and 5:30 games back to 7:30 p.m., and playing the 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. games at 9 p.m. All games went off without a hitch (see recaps on pages 12, 13, and 14), to the relief of organizers, fans and players.

"Thank God they all made it through," said ANBT chair Clarence Martin. "We were all really worried."

Once the highway was opened, the procession of cars began to pull into town shortly after 5 p. m. Sunday.

“I was told 167 cars… that’s quite a convoy,” said Martin.

Since the ANBT’s inception in 1960, mother nature’s main interference regarding the tournament has been via the ocean, with winter storms keeping either B. C. Ferries or the Alaska Marine Highway system (or both) from getting players, coaches, and fans alike to the tournament on time every once in a while.

But no one on the ANBT committee – including those who have watched the tournament from day one – can remember a year when it was the highway that became the number one concern. And despite the road reopening, conditions were still bad today and drivers were being warned to allow extra time to travel and be prepared for extreme conditions.

Some teams that were traveling from as far away as Bella Coola or Ahousaht were stuck in Terrace for more than 24 hours en route to Rupert.

“Back home it’s snowing too,” said Aaron Hans, captain of the Bella Coola Masters team that had to play Sunday night.

“This is the worst weather we’ve ever seen coming up here.”

Bella Coola actually just managed to get into Terrace in time Saturday before Highway 16 was also closed between Terrace and the Hazeltons. That part of the highway reopened Sunday morning.

But Bella Coola wasn’t alone, as there were several Nass Valley teams tuck in Terrace overnight as well, including various members of the Gitwinksihlkw Masters team, who was scheduled to face Bella Coola.

Some guys started (Saturday), so 36 hours,” said Gitwinksihlkw’s Dave Griffin.

The fact that the highway did open, and every team made it in time for Sunday’s game helped keep the ANBT Committee to having to make some difficult decision about scheduling. Instead, every game that was supposed to be played on Sunday took place, just a little later than expected.

“We thought we would have to go with plan B,” said Clarence Martin. “And we didn’t have a plan B.”

Currently, the Pacific Ocean is in the midst of La Nina, a cooling in the ocean that supposedly makes winter a lot colder in North America, and that certainly has been the case all across Canada.

But throw in Global Warming for good measure, which adds up to wet snow, slush and black ice all in one ugly highway package, as opposed to the dry snow and colder conditions that used to hit the North Coast back in the 1970’s.

“The highway… it’s just treacherous,” said Martin. “Blinding snow and ice… but people are determined to get through.”

Last week, Highway 16 was also closed both Wednesday and a portion of Thursday, delaying the departure of North Coast athletes for the Northern B. C. Winter Games in Dawson Creek.However, the highway reopened Thursday afternoon, and the athletes were able to depart for Dawson Creek. Watch for results on how the athletes did later t his week in the Daily News.