Basketball: Championship honors former coach

Although the Les Curry championship is still clearly a competition by name, to those who knew Curry, the his ideology seen in his biography still rings true: “To Les, basketball was more than just a game, not to be measured only by wins and losses.”

The championship, which is in honor of the father of Blue Devil alumnus Denise Curry and previous Davis High basketball coach Les Curry, lasts for three days from Dec. 13-15 with eight junior varsity and eight varsity teams playing in the bracket.

According to the biography on the Blue Devil’s men’s basketball team’s website, Curry spent 24 years as a teacher and 17 years as the head basketball coach at Davis High and earned much recognition for his outstanding basketball career such as his induction into the Montana State University Hall of Fame in 1995.

For Daniel Gonzalez, the head coach of the Davis High men’s varsity basketball team, the tourney is an important time to prepare for the rest of the season. “The championship is a pretty big deal because it’s competitive and it’s a great chance to play more home games, especially in December,” he said. “This is a huge advantage for us because most teams rarely get to have home games this time during this part of the season.”

But practice and preparation are not the only things on Gonzalez’s mind for this particular tournament. “I actually met Les in my first year of coaching and we should always remember why we have this [championship] in the first place,” he said. “I think it’s always important to remember and honor anyone who has made in impact in DHS sports.”

Although the Blue Devils lost to the Colfax Falcons 61-74 on the first match of the bracket, its players hope to still continue to win in the rest of the competition.