Making hoop dreams a reality

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This article was published 21/09/2022 (1278 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG

On any given day that snow or rain doesn’t cover the basketball courts, you’ll find folks out shooting hoops and playing pickup games outside community centres such as Dakota, Garden City or East St. Paul. That’s no accident, either.

“It’s refreshing to see that they’re using our outdoor courts throughout the summer,” said Mike Ruta, a lover of basketball who has had a tremendous impact on the sport in Manitoba over the past 25 years.

Founded in 1997, the Winnipeg Minor Basketball Association provides a structured basketball league for kids in Winnipeg that is open for all to participate. Now, 25 years later, the WMBA supports over 200 teams and offers six leagues for kids age five and up.

And it all started with a phone call.

Ruta, a Winnipegger who had been working out west, had moved back to live in Garden City with his family. His daughter was “eight or nine” at the time and had been playing community level basketball in Victoria, B.C. and Calgary, Alta. But Ruta couldn’t find any nearby community centres taking basketball registration.

“I phoned Adam Wedlake at Basketball Manitoba,” Ruta recalled on a sunny day back in August. “I asked if there were any way for kids to play. He said no.”

“My answer was, we don’t have that,” recalled Wedlake, who was program co-ordinator for Basketball Manitoba at the time. “I told him that when she reached Grade 7, she could try out for her school team. That was the norm at the time. Mike, being Mike, didn’t take that as a good answer.”

“I said I’d like to make some effort to put together a league,” Ruta said. “Off I went.”

Ruta began contacting community centres across Winnipeg, eventually getting 12 on board by the fall of 1997. Parents could sign their kids up to play at their local community centre, much like baseball, mini-soccer, and even hockey at the time. Every kid who signed up would have the opportunity to play, as opposed to having to try out for a team, as is the case in club basketball or at the junior high and high school levels.

“Basketball was kind of an elite sport here at the time, not at the ground level,” Ruta said. “Our approach is that when kids come into the game, they have to play. Fair play is critical.”

With the help of founding members Wedlake, Dale Gamey (Waverley Heights), Jan Mashinter (now Jan Voss, of Valley Gardens), Lori Hiscock (Gateway), and Larry Kabez (Vince Leah), the first WMBA teams hit the courts in November 1997.

“It was a lot of work,” Wedlake said. “The timing was good. The (Toronto) Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies had really pushed the sport forward in the eyes of Canadians. There was a surge in interest from those younger kids.”

Since then, thousands of kids — Ruta estimates somewhere around 20,000 — have had a chance to play basketball.

“Once we got it going and it was successful, it was time for me to hand it over and have other people bring in their ideas,” said Ruta, who has since taken an active role with the WMBA Foundation, which has raised funds to help build outdoor six outdoor courts across Winnipeg.

“I was really happy that we’ve had a very strong board over the years. They are carrying on and making changes, all to the good.”

Registration for the 2022-23 fall-winter season wrapped up on Sept. 19, and over 2,000 kids have been registered for some form of basketball programming through the WMBA.

“A lot of our success comes from the fact it’s community based,” said Sean Close, WMBA executive director. “Community centres are able to post teams from their specific areas. Basketball’s one of those sports that doesn’t cost a lot to play, and you can play anything from one-on-one to five-on-five, or work on individual skills at your neighbourhood court.”

Over the years, the WMBA has worked on increasing participation from female players and providing more opportunities for players to get involved at younger ages — initiatives aimed at growing the sport here in Winnipeg.

“Fundamentally, this is a league of fair play, that everyone who wants to play can and will play,” Ruta said. “We hold to that core value, which to me is really important. It’s great to see more elite competition and stuff like that, because a lot of kids thrive in that. But not everybody. There are a lot of kids who just want to go out and play with their friends, and not just sit on the bench.”

Many of those kids developed a love of the sport and forged friendships with their teammates that goes far beyond the court.

“Everyone of my high school and university teammates, if it wasn’t through school, it was a community program where they got their start,” said Alyssa Cox, coach of the University of Winnipeg Wesmen women’s basketball team.

Cox, who grew up playing soccer in Charleswood, accompanied a friend to a basketball practice in Roblin Park one day in Grade 7. She fell in love with the sport, and went on to play for the Wesmen, the team she now coaches.

“Having people volunteer their time to coach those programs and organize the leagues, it’s enormously important,” Cox said. “Basketball has often lacked in grassroots programming, so we need people to do that to allow kids to find and fall in love with the sport.”

Chad Posthumus, whose father Charles started working with the league early on, is another player who started in the WMBA who went on to be involved with the sport professionally.

“When Chad was around seven, there was nothing here,” Charles Posthumus, who played competitive basketball himself, said. “I went to Gateway and coached one year, and I noticed all the kids were East St. Paul kids. I asked WMBA to (allow East St. Paul) to join. First year we had two teams here, and within five years we were up to a dozen.”

Even though his children have grown up — with son Chad playing professionally in the Canadian Elite Basketball League — Posthumus is still involved with the WMBA as a convener and coach at East St. Paul Community Centre. He’s seen first-hand the impact that community level sport can have on kids.

“The community club, it’s friends for life,” he said. “You grow up together, you go to school together, you play basketball together. They’re having so much fun together, they hang around together all the time.”

“The league is about friendships, and building these friendships that will just be lifelong,” agreed Brent Amos, who has been the basketball convener at Dakota Community Centre for nearly 20 years. “I’ve seen how it affects kids. Fair play, getting out on the court and just having fun.”

Like many others, Amos got involved with the WMBA through his kids.

“My daughter came to me, her friend said ‘Hey let’s go play basketball,’” Amos recalled. “We signed her up, watched a couple games, and the coach of her team needed help when he wasn’t there for a couple practices. I said, OK, I could do it. Then I just got sucked into it from there.”

Amos and his family connected with the WMBA in a profound way.

“The league, it really formed who we are as a family,” Amos said. “We’ve all been involved. I coached my son from when he was eight years old, for winter and spring, every fall and winter until he was 18. All my kids have coached in the league. I went on to coach in the school division, at Burland and Glenlawn, and now at a K-8 school in Windsor Park. All my kids continue to coach, and they’ve all played. I’ve coached them all.”

This fall, after nearly 20 years with the WMBA, Amos will have an opportunity to live out a longtime coaching dream.

“I always said I’d do it until I could coach a grandkid,” Amos said. “My grandson is turning three, next fall-winter, I’m going to be coaching him. That’s the son of my daughter Alexa, who came to me in Grade 5 wanting to play.”

For more information on the history of the WMBA, visit wmba25.ca

Next week, the Free Press Community Review will take a look at the impact the WMBA has had on developing coaches, officials, and improving facilities for basketball over the past 25 years.