Hundreds Attend Annual Filipino Tournament

Hundreds of members of the Moose Jaw Filipino community showed up for their annual Family Day Weekend Basketball Tournament.

The longest running Family Day weekend event in Moose Jaw the numbers were up over last year with about 600 people showing up.

Although the tournament was put on by the local Filipino community it was free for anyone to attend.

Some of the food

The tournament started years ago as a way for Filipino people to be together as many were in Canada without any family. People in the Philippines are very family oriented.

The tournament featured 10 basketball teams - the Philippines national sport - but it also featured singing as well as seven vendors offering a large selection of authentic Filipino food.

Judge David Chow spoke about his family’s immigration journey and the hardship the Chows faced. He spoke passionately about Filipino people and encouraged them to become more of the community outside of the Filipino community.

Judge Chow received a massive round of applause.

A vendor shows off his fried chicken

Also the tournament’s four referees were thanked for participating and people were told it’s not always easy being a referee.

The men’s division was highly competitive with games being won or lost in the final few seconds.

Some of the food was cooked on site

A food vendor shows off her food offerings

Judge David Chow (far right), who was the guest speaker, took time to meet many of those attending including the people selling food

The tournament may have seen some tough and serious play but there was still time to clown around

Even the youngest kids were showing off their basketball skills

Judge David Chow is presented with a t-shirt from the tournament

Simpson Seeds in the parade of teams

The parade of teams was family oriented

Two kids in the parade of teams

A child participating in the parade of teams

The long reach for the ball

Trying to break in from the outside

Guarding an opponent

A pair of girls teams competed in the tournament

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