Hoops at an all-time high Growing popularity of basketball in Manitoba comes with challenges By: Taylor Allen Posted: 6:46 PM CST Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023 Last Modified: 10:18 AM CST Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023 Updates

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Basketball in the province is growing at a rate it has never experienced before.

The past year saw the sport in Manitoba see a 23 per cent year-over-year growth in participation across all age groups and genders.

Basketball Manitoba executive director Adam Wedlake believes there are two big reasons for the surge: pro hoops returning to the city with the Winnipeg Sea Bears and Canada’s senior men’s team knocking off the United States to win bronze at the FIBA World Cup. Being further removed from the pandemic likely contributed as well.

“The timing of both was hugely impactful. The timing of the World Cup (August-September) couldn’t have been better because that was right when registration was just getting going and any good news or buzz in the world of basketball only helps what we do,” said Wedlake.

“But I think the Sea Bears need to be front and centre on this with the buzz they created in the spring and summer. What it’s equated to now is really quite extraordinary.”

The Sea Bears, who play in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), hit the ground running as they hosted the seven highest-attended games in league history during their inaugural season. When the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship in 2019, the impact was felt across the nation, including Manitoba where Wedlake estimates a 10 per cent increase occurred thanks to the heroics of Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry.

That was substantial, but it’s nothing compared to what CEBL MVP Teddy Allen and the Sea Bears meant for the local hoops scene.

“Out of the 23 per cent, I would guess that the Sea Bears are responsible for a number in the high teens of bringing people to the sport,” said Wedlake.

“This growth that we have is fantastic, but we need to make sure we work together as a community to have the logistics and infrastructure behind it to support it so we’re not depleting our resources.”–Reid Kenyon

Last year, Basketball Manitoba had 8,000 registered members — which includes players, coaches and referees. They now sit at 9,800, and that number doesn’t include individuals who only play on their middle school or high school team.

The largest jump has been made with Basketball Manitoba’s spring and summer camps as they’ve exploded by 60 per cent.

“That’s without us changing the programs much. It’s not like all of a sudden LeBron James is coaching the team,” said Wedlake.

The adult recreation level also grew by a whopping 30 per cent. No one at Basketball Manitoba is complaining, but more participants have led to its fair share of challenges.

That includes having enough officials. There’s a referee shortage in most, if not all sports currently, and that includes basketball.

Reid Kenyon is a local official who works U Sports and CEBL games. He’s also the referee assignor for for the Winnipeg Minor Basketball Association and the Peg City Basketball Association.

The province boasts 230 senior officials and 180 junior officials. None of them have to look far for work.

“There are times when we have provincial tournaments going on, senior leagues going on, our community leagues going on, and we’re taxed right to the max,” said Kenyon.

Officials can also run up and down the court year-round now as there isn’t much of an off-season anymore. Kenyon said it wasn’t too long ago when play occured October through March, but those days are gone. Recruiting younger officials and retaining the current crop they have is the main priority for Kenyon and his peers.

“We’re kind of at a pivotal point of basketball officiating in Winnipeg. There are numerous leagues that are drawing from the same resource and that becomes challenging at times. We need to do better as a community and work together, because the basketball community are all fighting for the same thing,” said Kenyon.

“This growth that we have is fantastic, but we need to make sure we work together as a community to have the logistics and infrastructure behind it to support it so we’re not depleting our resources.”

Former University of Winnipeg Wesmen guard and former Red River College men’s head coach Sukhvir Singh started his own youth developmental program in 2015 called Attack Basketball. They have different teams and camps for different ages and skill levels.

“Other teams have popped up. A lot of other programs are starting, and a lot of other programs have teams now across multiple age groups where in the past there were a lot of programs that had one or two teams. Now there’s multiple programs that have five or six age divisions covered with what they’re offering so I’ve definitely seen the rise with that,” said Singh.

Teaching the next generation how to shoot and dribble is important, but Singh stresses there’s more work that needs to be done to keep the sport healthy and thriving. To help athletes make the transition to coaching, Attack started a youth mentorship program.

Programs like that are needed as the WMBA and several schools have struggled with filling several coaching vacancies around the city.

“A hurdle that needs to be jumped is making sure you have coaches that are well-versed in the sport of basketball so they can also teach and offer to kids the type of teaching that they need,” said Singh. “So, a lot of our kids that started with us back in 2015, 2016, are now in Grade 11 or Grade 12, so they give back. They got a lot of volunteer work they need to do… so, they’ve become some of our youth coaches and junior coaches.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

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