Thousands of high school athletes, parents and coaches will be disappointed to hear that all Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association activities will be cancelled on March 21 and 22nd, including HOOPLA 2024.

This decision was made, because, as of 3:00pm on Wednesday, there has been no notice that Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation sanctions will be removed for Thursday and Friday.

On the bright side, Saturday, March 23 is the final day of the SHSAA basketball season, and all teams that qualified for HOOPLA are invited to participate in a one-day Provincial Basketball Championship in Moose Jaw.

Each team involved will play one game against one team based on their seeding. A schedule is posted below.

The SHSAA writes that they “look forward to celebrating high school sport and bringing closure to the high school basketball season on Saturday”.

The STF also issued a release on the topic, stating that they are deeply disappointed that the situation couldn’t have been avoided.

“Throughout this process we have provided government with multiple off-ramps to end sanctions and ensure that activities and events such as Hoopla, the Regina Optimist Band Festival, the Skills Canada Saskatchewan Provincial Competition, and many, many more could take place as originally planned,” the release read.

They add that the government can end all job action immediately by either agreeing to binding arbitration on the issue of class size and complexity or providing the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee with a mandate to negotiate that issue.