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Published Mar 19, 2025 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
Martin Monarchs players Corban Andres (left), Aiden Newton and Thomas Olson listen to basketball coach Rob Thomson during a practice inside Regina’s Martin Collegiate on March 17/25. Photo by Darrell Davis Standing outside the Martin Collegiate gymnasium while his city champions were practising inside, Monarchs basketball coach Rob Thomson patted a big, white bulletin board and remembered what his program was like when he started eight years ago.
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“For our school, when we put the basketball tryout form up here, it never got filled up,” said Thomson. “We got 18 guys this year.
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“We cut four, some who don’t show up in shorts or they’re wearing outside shoes. So we kept 14. We don’t really cut many players. On our junior team, we had 20 and kept 15.”
Thomson has coached two multi-sport sons, Chase and Ty, through the program. In addition to coaching flag football, tackle football, hockey and an elite baseball team, for the past four years Thomson has been coaching Martin’s junior and senior boys basketball teams for 50-plus practices and about 30 games each, helping them move into the city’s top level of competitors. Last season the junior team went 27-0 before job action by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation brought a premature end to the basketball season.
Four players from that undefeated junior squad — Zach Zaiser, Judah Frentz, Eric Flaman and Kobe Thomson, the coach’s youngest son — graduated this season to the senior team.
It went 23-5, finished first in the Regina High Schools Athletic Association senior boys Blue Division, won the Campbell Invitational Tournament, lost to Saskatoon Walter Murray in the prestigious Luther Invitational Tournament’s final, defeated the Riffel Royals 93-72 in last week’s city final and advanced to Hoopla, the provincial championships in Saskatoon, where they will play Prince Albert Carlton in their opening game of the eight-team, 5A championship on Thursday.
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Thomson looked at the plaques on the gigantic, city championship trophy that dates back to 1946 and noticed Martin — which opened in 1959 — had never won before.
Martin Monarchs coach Rob Thomson holds the Regina High Schools Athletic Association trophy given to the annual senior boys basketball champions, which his team won on March 13/25. Photo by Courtesy of Rob Thomson “I started thinking we could win a city championship when I was in Grade 10,” said captain Aiden Newton, a Grade 12 student who started playing basketball at Ruth M. Buck School. “We were a top team that kind of choked in the semifinal. I knew we had the talent to get to that point.
“This year we wanted it more, developed better chemistry and obviously having Tommy (Olson) come in was a key piece.”
After falling into athletic obscurity with a shrinking student population, Martin reinvented itself about 10 years ago by becoming a sports-centric high school, ultimately establishing itself as an academy for elite baseball, softball and hockey players with specialized instruction in a few “premier” sports. The school has rebounded.
“We used to get just great athletes,” said Thomson. “Now we’ve also got basketball players, two from Sask First programs, six or seven from club teams.”
Indeed, Newton wanted to train as a baseball outfielder, plus he won a volleyball city championship before adding this year’s basketball crown. Olson came to Martin from Weyburn to continue training as an aesthetic body builder, plus he joined the volleyball and basketball teams, joining Newton and three-point shooter Corban Andres on the latter as senior starters.
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“These guys have been playing together for a very long time and I’m new,” said Olson. “This year has been different for them and me.
“At the start it was kind of iffy, then we started getting along as we played more. Martin’s first championship, that makes me feel really good. Winning volleyball and basketball is quite an accomplishment because the guys have been so welcoming and it’s been a good atmosphere. I didn’t think we’d win, but we came together so well at the end of the season.”
Thomson’s steady hand has evidently helped. He said he strives to be honest with his players and their parents, making everyone aware of their status on the team while keeping open communications with everyone involved.
Thomson was on a team that won a city championship in 1990, playing at Balfour Collegiate with a team coached by Regina Sports Hall of Famer Glen Fekula. Thomson also played for the University of Regina Cougars and served eight years as an assistant to Fekula.
“We still talk often,” said Fekula. “He is an outstanding coach with great insight into both skill development, team strategies, combined with an ability to relate to his players in a quiet, composed manner. Martin is very fortunate to have him working with their students.”
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