After winning the 2013 Grey Cup at home, the Saskatchewan Rough-riders and their championship roster have been sharing the moment with the entire province. Stepping outside of Regina to continue their celebration that has followed their historic win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to earn the franchise's fourth Grey Cup.
This Friday, Yorkton gets their turn to join in on the party and celebrate with the Riders.
Yorkton Co-Op's grocery store on Argyle Street will be hosting a long list of Riders players, as well as the Grey Cup itself on Friday afternoon before the Yorkton Regional High School Boys Basketball team plays a group of Rider players in an exhibition game of basketball later in the day.
Bruce Thurston, general manager of Yorkton's Co-Op Food Store mentioned that the event was put on thanks to the hard work of Darcy Zaharia in lining up the event and that the Co-Op was offered a chance to host the event that they naturally couldn't refuse.
"We didn't have much to do with the planning of the event, but organizer Darcy Zaharia approached us about potentially hosting the event at our store and it was a great opportunity," Thurston added saying "Who wouldn't want to host the Grey Cup at their store."
Given Co-Op's connection with the Riders, selling Rider related food items and team merchandise for years now, the Co-Op hosting the kickoff to the Riders visit to town seemed like a natural fit.
"Co-Op has always been a huge supporter of the Roughriders and being a part of the province we are extremely proud of the team and are looking forward to hosting the Grey Cup for the first time here on Friday," says Thurston.
The days events will conclude with a basketball game at the YRHS, as of now the tenative list of Riders making the trip includes:
Brendon LaBatte, Kory Sheets, Carlos Thomas, Jordan Cisco, Chris Milo, Paul Woldu, Diamond Ferri, Dwight Anderson, Neal Hughes, Mike McCullough, Rey Williams, Dan Clark, Taj Smith, Tearrius George, Macho Harris
Donations will be taken for Yorkton KidSport in connection with the event, all times for the events on Friday are currently tenative and will be ironed out more during the days leading up to the big day.
Yorkton, get excited. The Grey Cup is coming to our city.
