Midtown Showdown Returns For the First Time Since the Pandemic

Hannah Azad

From February 28 to March 1, Eric Hamber Secondary welcomed eight teams from across the Vancouver School District to play in the iconic Midtown Showdown basketball tournament. The tournament lasted two days, and took place in the main gym, where the bleachers were open to spectators for the first time in two years.

Hamber’s Senior Girls and Boys teams battled three other teams in their respective pools, in what was a solely round-robin tournament for the first time in the tournament’s 11-year history.

Not only was the competition between teams intense, so was the deliberation to decide whether or not the event would take place this year.

The Nest spoke to Mr. I. Sehmbi, the head of Hamber’s athletics department, about what it was like coordinating the tournament amidst a pandemic.

“This year we had fewer teams, four on the boys side and four on the girls, instead of the sixteen [total] we usually have,” he shared. Elaborating, he mentioned that “usually Midtown goes for three days, from Thursday to Saturday night, but this year we had to cut it down to two school days.”

Even though the tournament was reduced in size because of the pandemic, Sehmbi and Hamber’s Athletics Department loved the process of making sure this year’s Midtown Showdown went ahead.

“It really warmed our hearts, we had planned on doing this earlier in the year and when restrictions ramped up again we had to put it on hold, there was a time in January we thought we might even have to cancel it,” he said, on the challenges of the 2022 tourna- ment.

As for the years ahead, Sehmbi was excited by the opportunity to expand the tournament with a possible two schools at his disposal.

“I would love to use the new school gym, and the current one to run the biggest tournament in BC for senior basketball, and it’s a great opportunity for the kids when teams from far away come to play, so we can have that hap- pen again with two gyms.”

Sehmbi shared he was also looking forward to next year, where he hopes to can bring back concession stands and full capacity weekend games in the tournament.

Aside from the coaches and staff behind the Athletics Department, Ham- ber’s Senior basketball players were also thrilled to have Midtown Show- down go ahead this year.

Benjamin Gutman (12) spoke to The Nest about the Midtown player experience. “Well it was just amazing, right, I saw it every year since I started playing [for the team] in Grade 9, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Nicole Sabet (12), on the senior girls team, gave her perspective on what playing in the tournament meant to her, as a basketball player and as a Hamber student.

“It was really fun and exciting, and I was really stoked that we got to have Midtown like this, because at the beginning of the season we were unsure about whether we would play or not.”

Like Gutman, Sabet was also happy to have the opportunity to play in the thrilling tournament, who’s return after the pandemic makes it all the more exciting for Hamber’s students, this year and beyond.