Showron Glover and Michael Linklater.

Members of the 2009-10 Huskies basketball team reunited March 15, but rather than meeting on the court, they were checking tickets and greeting people at the Roxy Theatre.

The former squad was ushering fans for the premiere of Underdogs, a feature-length documentary film that captures the journey their team took en route to becoming Canadian Interuniversity Sport national champions that season.

The players, along with everyone else in the theatre, soon took their seats in anticipation for the film that combined intimate interviews from coaches, players, parents and Huskie alumni with game footage to create more than just a basketball story. The documentary retells a season’s worth of unique personal and team narratives, culminating in the Dogs winning the club’s first-ever CIS title.

“We are two years removed from the championship, but when you see the actual events [on screen] it’s like you are at the games again,” said Greg Jockims, the Huskies’ head coach for the championship run, in an interview with Global Saskatoon. “The movie really does a great job of capturing the overall feel, and all the things that led to the championship.”

The film doesn’t shy away from negative things that went on during the season either. The team of that year had dedicated the season to former teammate Brennan Jarret, who tragically died in 2008 due to complications with testicular cancer. The issue was often referenced by players as something the team rallied around, and that they could feel his spirit guiding the team through their magical season.

Shockingly, the team started the 2009-10 campaign with a 4-4 record before they discovered their true potential. Once they did though, they seemed unstoppable, only losing one game in the rest of the regular season and going undefeated throughout playoffs.

Underdogs is named after the generally low expectations for the team that year, even after they had made it to the national tournament. Sports analysts gave the team a five per cent chance of winning the title coming into the tournament, which only fuelled the players’ drive to win and prove everyone wrong.

The team did exactly that by winning their first two games of the tournament before facing the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the national final, a team they beat in the Canada West final but were still expected to lose to. With terrific footage borrowed from the TSN television coverage of the tournament, the final moments of the game are beautifully captured in the film. As the Huskies won the final game, the Roxy Theatre audience erupted in cheers.

The excitement of the crowd was something that Art Unsworth, father of two of the players on the championship team, thought was a true testament to the quality of the film.

“It was a good film, and it was amazing how the crowd really got immersed into it.”

It was the first of three showings of the film and was also high school appreciation night as many Saskatoon High School basketball teams were in attendance. Coach Jockims gave a speech following the film stressing to the young basketball players that the success of that season was due to a close bond between the players, the work ethic of the team and each person’s drive to achieve his best, and the “never give up” attitude that led the team through their toughest times.

Copies of Underdogs are available at the U of S bookstore for $20.

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Photo: Supplied