Every day is a new experience for Rotary Youth Exchange student Leo Canudas — including the area’s recent snowfalls. The United States was on the shortlist of countries Canudas wanted to attend school in for the year, after years of asking his mom when it would be his turn to spend a year abroad as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange. He did not know anything about Wisconsin when he was finally told he had been accepted and where he would be going. He did learn that Wisconsin is “full of cheese” and that it can get pretty cold. When he arrived at Gibraltar this past fall, he discovered that American school days are longer than those in Bolivia, but he quickly immersed himself after deciding to join the football team.

Canudas’ fall at Gibraltar included being named homecoming king and scoring a touchdown on his first and only carry of the game. A boxer in his home country, Canudas is also taking up another sport he has never played before: basketball. He says it is all part of the Rotary Youth Exchange experience and adds that sometimes you only have one chance to do something — and you should take advantage of it when it comes up.

Canudas will be enrolled at Gibraltar until the end of the school year, by which point he hopes to catch a Packers game and a boxing match before he goes home. You can learn more about the Rotary Youth Exchange program at this link.

HEAR THE STORY ABOUT CANUDAS’ TOUCHDOWN IN THIS YEAR’S GIBRALTAR HOMECOMING GAME

PRINCE ALBERT – High school basketball season is underway in Prince Albert and the Carlton Crusaders senior girls team had the chance to open in the city at the Kelly Smith Memorial Tournament at Ecole St. Mary

The Crusaders advanced to Saturday’s final after a 68-31 victory over the Indian Head Broncos on Saturday afternoon.

Crusaders head coach Kelsey Pearson said that the dominant performance was great but the club is still working out a few bad habits.

“We have got some work to do,” Pearson said. “Obviously, we missed a lot of easy buckets and that kind of set us back a bit. When your shots aren’t falling, it’s important your defence is even better.”

“We had a little bit of foul trouble,” she added. “We have a young bench, so we’re trying to get the minutes, which was great for them.”

The team got into foul trouble in the third quarter against Indian Head, but eventually fixed things and pulled away further in the fourth quarter. Pearson said the early adversity had its benefits.

“It’s good for it to happen early because then it’s something we can work on in the future,” she said. “We need our players in the game. It’s important that they recognize and understand that.”

As the team got further into the lead against Indian Head, the Crusaders could use their Grade 9 players to give them floor experience.

“We couldn’t get everyone in today, but yesterday we got everyone in,” she said. “We have 14 on our team, so it’s not always going to be like that.”

The Crusaders are coming off a trip to Hoopla as a young team last season. While they’re a more experienced team this year, Pearson said the squad still has many new players.

“We’re young and the experience isn’t there as it has been previous years, but our older girls are doing great at leading, and our younger girls are pretty smart, so they’re catching on quick,” she said. “We’ll just keep working.”

The Crusaders have two Grade 12 players but only one who was on the team last year, guard Lilly Slack. The team has five Grade 11 players, one Grade 10 and six Grade 9 players.

Slack said the team has a good mix of youth and veteran players. Even though it’s still early in the season, she likes what she’s seen so far.

“I think we have a lot of potential on our team,” she said. “Come five months from now, I think we’ll be a very strong team. We’ll be fast, (and) we’ll be running teams to the ground.

“I think our Grade 9s will get a lot of experience and I think we’ll be really fast. I think we’ll have a bunch of good tournaments,” she added.

Slack said that the team likes to stretch the floor and uses their speed to create offence.

“We would like to be a team that runs the court, has fast breaks, and good defence,” she said.

Pearson also said that the roster had a nice balance with the large group of Grade 11 and Grade 9 players.

“Those young girls have never experienced regionals, getting to Hoopla, so they don’t know that competitive drive yet,” she said.

“I’m really hoping to push the girls as far as we can. I would love to give those girls that experience and hopefully make it to Hoopla or get as far as we can with this team.”

The Crusaders opened the Kelly Smith Memorial with a 69-25 win over the Weyburn Eagles on Friday before advancing to the final with the win over Indian Head on Saturday.

Pearson liked what she saw from the players in their first tournament of the season at St. Mary.

“I’m super proud of the girls. They’ve been doing great, working hard. I mean, we can always get better and improve, and the ceiling’s a little higher for us, so we’ve got lots to work on, which is the exciting part, right? Seeing the growth is what I’m most looking forward to this season,” Pearson said.

The Crusaders lost the championship game 62-35 to the Swift Current Ardens on Saturday night but Pearson was still happy to advance to the final.

“I’m just really proud of them,” she said.

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Ignacio hosting Mancos on Tuesday

Ignacio boys basketball head coach Trae Seibel, right, talks with now-senior Rance Rathjen during last season’s road game at Montezuma-Cortez. Rathjen will be counted upon to provide depth and veteran leadership in 2025-26. (Joel Priest/Special to the Herald)

As much as an Ignacio boys basketball team can typically, and traditionally has, out-run an opponent, conditioning always proves most crucial and thus allows coaches to properly train players in the ways of the Bobcat.

It’s basically Trae Seibel’s favorite time of year as the Bobcats look to improve on a fifth-place 4-8 in the 3A/4A Intermountain League and ultimately 11-13 overall last season after falling to Loveland Resurrection Christian in the 3A state tournament’s opening round of 32.

Which wasn’t surprising; the Cougars, which went on to capture the state championship and complete a 28-0 season, were the No. 1 seed while the ’Cats were the 32. Unfortunately, the loss ended the prep careers of five seniors including usual starter Charley Pargin, plus regular reserves Angelo Frost, Coty Webb, Lincoln Gillespie and Marquise Cibrian.

But much established talent will be back for the 2025-26 grind. Now-senior Trace Crane returns to anchor the front court, but with length enabling him to strike from almost anywhere.

“In our system that we implemented, the UCLA offense, we’re hammering on (getting) high-percentage shots,” Seibel explained near the close of the ’24-25 season. “So we’re pounding the ball inside then looking for outside opportunities. Charley, he took advantage of it, and there were games where Trace took advantage of it. They were working their butts off, and so was everybody else.”

Senior back court regular Ambrose Valdez also returns along with senior Sonny Flores, capable of starting or filling a sixth-man role. After continuing to hone his skills last winter as an important reserve, senior Rance Rathjen is also back along with classmate Stoney White Thunder-Lucero.

Juniors William Mendoza-Lechuga and Thunder Windy Boy, junior-varsity regulars last winter (the latter did see some varsity minutes as the season progressed), will add depth along with junior Shaun Sanderson, sophomore Joseph Atencio, freshman Keyon Alston and senior Zaine Velasquez-Hight.

And while read-and-react may again drive Ignacio’s attack, the ’Cats may again rely defensively on a zone-based look.

Up first, IHS’ boys will host 2A Mancos on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. With nowhere to go but up after a brutal 0-22 (0-12 3A/2A/1A San Juan Basin) campaign last winter, the Blue Jays are already off to a 1-1 start after winning their ’25-26 opener, 60-42 over 1A Lake City Community School, on Friday at 2A Sargent’s two-day tournament. MHS, however, then fell 52-38 on the Saturday to the hosting Farmers.

After meeting Mancos, the Bobcats will then creep into the San Luis Valley to contend at 2A Center’s 12/12-13 C-Town Showdown. Awaiting the gents at 7 p.m. on its first day will be Blanca-based Sierra Grande (No. 8 in the preseason CHSAANow.com Class 1A rankings), which went 6-0 in the 1A Southern Peaks last season and ended up 19-6 overall after losing to Elbert in the 1A state tournament’s Sweet 16.

Ignacio’s December slate will conclude at Aztec, New Mexico’s Rumble in ‘The Jungle,’ December 18-20. The Bobcats are scheduled to square off against the hosting Tigers on the 18th at 7 p.m.

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El Dorado players and coaches after winning the Gary Raya Classic. (Photo courtesy El Dorado basketball).

El Dorado’s boys basketball team moved ahead in the final seconds and held on to defeat La Habra 53-52 in the championship game of the 29th annual Gary Raya Classic Saturday afternoon at El Dorado.

It was the seventh win in a row for El Dorado.

“Battling illness, five games in eight days,” said El Dorado Coach Ryan Mounce. “Resilience and grit.”

Noah Barker and Evan Nam scored 13 points each to lead El Dorado (9-1). Barker was named the tournament MVP.

Acen Jimenez led La Habra (8-2) with 29 points.

WOODBRIDGE 68, SAN JUAN HILLS 57: Woodbridge (8-3) won the third place game Saturday. Jaiden Sabino had a big week for Woodbridge. Nick Francik scored 23 points, Kam Aziz and Cooper Lee 10 points each and Nick Pandis nine points to lead San Juan Hills (5-4) which was without four injured starters.

ALL-TOURNAMENT

MVP: Noah Barker, El Dorado

Evan Nam, El Dorado; Ryan Northcott, El Dorado; Eli Rodarte, El Dorado; Noah Querubin, El Dorado; Acen Jimenez, La Habra; Aaron Wilson, La Habra; Josh Desatoff, La Habra; Connor Fisher, Capo Valley; Jaiden Sabino, Woodbridge; Rocco Jensen, San Juan Hills.

Send basketball news to timburt@ocsportszone.com