Wear green, or wear gold. Starving students and others who pick the right colour will receive a payoff that will go straight to their stomachs.
On Saturday at the Northern Sport Centre, the UNBC Northern Timberwolves men's basketball team will hold an intrasquad contest dubbed the Wendy's UNBC Green/Gold Game. Fans dressed in the colour of the winning side will be handed coupons for a Wendy's hamburger.
The game will start at 7 p.m. and there is no charge for admission.
"It's kind of a way to break up the monotony of practicing for three weeks straight without games," said UNBC head coach Todd Jordan. "The other thing is, I kind of see this as something that might become a tradition year in and year out -- almost become a pep rally type of thing for us. We're going to try it out this year and see how it goes. If we do a good job getting the word out, hopefully we'll get a decent turnout and it becomes something we want to do every year."
The Timberwolves finished their pre-season schedule Oct. 16 in Red Deer and don't play their first league game in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association until Nov. 5, when they'll tip off in New Westminster against the Douglas College Royals.
Jordan has already picked the rosters for the Green/Gold game. Team Green will feature Inderbir Gill, Sam Raphael, Jesse Smith, Josh Jebose, Joel Rybachuk and Dan Stark and will be coached by UNBC assistant Trent Folk.
Team Gold, under the guidance of UNBC assistant John Tramble, will be formed by Francis Rowe, Dennis Stark, Robert Rodriguez, Matt Mills, Sebastien-Kevin Louis, Abdu Benrabah and Kenny Carnes.
"These will be our practice squads this week and everything will be competitive leading up to the game," Jordan said.
The T-wolves, who will enter the season as defending champions in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association, posted a 3-2 record during their exhibition schedule. One of those losses was an 84-79 setback to the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades, a Canadian Interuniversity Sport team. The other defeat, 96-85, came against the NAIT Ooks, who are expected to be a top-five squad in the CCAA this season.
During the pre-season, Jebose -- a six-foot-seven post from Calgary -- was the player Jordan said made the most progress.
"He's still making a lot of rookie mistakes but the speed at which he's growing has definitely been a good thing," Jordan said. "He's developing fairly quickly and that's a positive because we're going to need him coming down the stretch, for sure."
