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When his pregnant wife was in labour, JJ Salmon slipped away from the hospital.

It was for something important, and his wife understood.

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Salmon, a Raymond High School teacher and coach, had to run basketball tryouts.

Raymond, a southern Alberta town of about 4,000 people, six churches and one high school, is a rare community where leaving your wife in the maternity ward to watch teenagers make jump shots is not only acceptable, it’s expected.

The same would probably also hold true in nearby Magrath — a town of 2,300 established in 1899 by American settlers sent from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and in Cardston, a dry community of 3,500 nestled in Alberta’s rolling foothills near the U.S. border.

Pucks and hockey sticks are typically commonplace in Canadian small towns, but Cardston, Raymond and Magrath are different: Basketball, not hockey, has long been a way of life.

“We hate to use the word,” says Dallen Leavitt, Cardston High School principal, “but it’s almost like a religion for some of the kids.”

For decades, the senior teams at Raymond, Cardston, and Magrath have been competing against much bigger schools — and winning.

Indeed, as high schools across the province compete for their respective titles at the 4A provincial championships in Edmonton later this week, Raymond High School’s girls team is the defending 4A provincial champions. And, over the past 11 years, teams from Cardston, Magrath, or Raymond have accounted for nine of the championship teams in the Boys 4A, Girls 4A, and Girls 3A categories.