The last weekend in January the Orcas Christian School Saints attended the Walla Walla Friendship Tournament. This is a tournament put on by Walla Walla University in which many of the top Adventist schools in the Pacific Northwest attend.

Schools range in size and classification, the largest being over 300 students and the smallest being OCS.

“It is fun getting to play against our sister schools and see how we match up against schools that are over 15 times our size,” said Saints coach Ryan Davis. “Over the years this tournament has been well attended by college coaches and many of our students have received offers to play college ball including one full-ride scholarship from this tournament.”

The tournament was broken up into two different brackets. The men’s team played a great tournament ending with a Saturday night game against Parkview Adventist Academy for a perfect 3-0. The Saints were named the Walla Walla Friendship Tournament D2 Champions.

The ladies team started with a tough matchup against Walla Walla Valley Academy, which is consistently a strong team. Then the ladies played a very good Upper Columbia team followed by Milo Adventist Academy. The ladies team ended up taking 8th place out of the 12 team tournament.

Two Saints were honored by the tournament directors as being two of the best players in the tournament. Corey Aragon and Alaena Comrie were selected to be a part of the All-Tournament Team.

The men’s team also received an additional honor by being awarded the Sportsmanship Award which is voted on by the other coaches. Davis said, “Being named Champion is one thing but it is much better to be awarded the Sportsmanship Award. This award goes beyond play on the court and shows the kind of players that we have in our program. We put a special focus on our student-athletes on their character and the kind of people they are to become. This award shows their dedication to that.”

“This is a great tournament that gets our students to see what college life is about, see our sister schools and make lifelong friendships. It was another great experience and we look forward to attending for many years to come,” said Saint Athletic Director Breezy Davis.