Prince Albert Students Win Top Prize at Business Competition

A recent business case competition held at Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Prince Albert campus saw local high school students showcase their entrepreneurial skills, culminating in a victory for a team of four students. The competition, organized in partnership with the Saskatchewan Rush, provided an opportunity for young minds to present innovative engagement strategies aimed at enhancing the team’s connection with fans.

The winning team, comprised of Myla Masko, Reign Blanchard, and two other classmates, earned first place for their creative proposals. “None of us, I mean, speak for all of us, but I don’t think we walked in here thinking we were gonna get first place,” Masko, a Grade 11 student, remarked after the event. “It was pretty cool.” Along with the honor of being champions, the team received tuition credits and box seats to an upcoming Rush game, part of a total prize pool of $32,000 awarded to participants.

The competition tasked students with developing fresh engagement ideas for the Saskatchewan Rush, a professional lacrosse team. Blanchard, a Grade 12 student, explained their approach: “I’m in sports myself, and I watch a lot of sports, so I just kind of took ideas of what other sports teams did and what they didn’t have, and just kind of threw it out there.”

Tyler Wawryk, Vice President of Business Operations for the Saskatchewan Rush, expressed admiration for the students’ presentations. “I have all the presentations on a flash drive, and I’m gonna take them back to my team. And there’s definitely some ideas that I think we will implement in some way, shape or form, both in the short and long term.”

This event marked the inaugural year for the Prince Albert campus to host the competition, attracting participation from students across northern Saskatchewan. Josh Glew, a business instructor at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, emphasized the importance of such initiatives for local youth. “For us in the north here in Prince Albert, domestic recruitment includes a lot of communities that aren’t local. So, we’re trying to recruit from, you know, communities that are 400 km to the north.”

Simultaneously, the Moose Jaw campus organized a similar competition for high school students in southern Saskatchewan, highlighting the institution’s commitment to fostering business acumen among youth across the province. The collaborative effort illustrates Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s dedication to providing educational opportunities that extend beyond traditional classroom settings, empowering students to engage with real-world business challenges.

Overall, the competition not only celebrated the students’ creativity but also laid the groundwork for potential collaborations between local educational institutions and professional sports teams. As the Saskatchewan Rush looks to the future, the ideas generated by the Prince Albert students may very well play a role in shaping the team’s engagement strategies moving forward.