The news broke last week – the 2023 edition of the McLeod Series between Weyburn Comprehensive School and Estevan Comprehensive School would not be played.

“We made the decisions to take a break from the McLeod series to allow some things to reset, and we’re looking forward to working with Estevan Comp to move forward and make plans for next year and what that’s going to look like,” explained Ryan Fowler, the principal of Weyburn Comprehensive School.

The cancellation, according to a written statement issued by the school, was that the game was called off due to harassment and threatening behaviour, both on and off the court, as well as high emotions between the two schools.

“Our hope is that we’re able to work together to build a plan and work together with our fans and the communities to look at what next year is going to look like for moving forward with games against each other,” Fowler added.

There was no specific incident that was cited by either school in terms of the reason for the cancellation. It was explained by both schools that this was something that had been building up and it was determined the best interest of everyone would be to have the annual basketball classic put on pause.

This isn’t the first time this has happened where there was a pause due to the ramp-up of tensions between the schools. Dating back to the first time the McLeod Series was played in 1932, the event was always seen as more than just school versus school, but community versus community. There were even times during the 1970s when the series was put on hold, or delayed, due to concerns.

The cancellation of the McLeod Series this year, though, doesn’t mean an end to the basketball season for the teams from Weyburn Comprehensive School.

“They will be continuing on with those seasons,” Fowler explained. “The junior teams will end at districts and the intermediate teams will end at districts and the senior teams will enter SHSAA regional play in March.”

This year would have been the 87th installment of the McLeod Series. Weyburn has won the last four.