Hoopster hoopla

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/07/2020 (1921 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When current Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Danny Green was in Winnipeg last July for a basketball camp inside the Sport for Life Centre, the place was buzzing with 200 kids working on their skills.

More than a year later, there are a handful of basketball camps currently operating around town with far less action and excitement, but it has nothing to do with the fact there isn’t a two-time NBA champion leading them.

Basketball Manitoba’s return to play plan was approved and went into effect on July 3, but the sport still remains a ways away from tipping off in a competitive setting. For now, organized basketball is in Phase 2, which limits training to a socially distanced format that has players bringing their own ball to the gym and a max of two shooters per hoop. The two players at each basket can only handle their own ball and contact drills, as well as spectators, are disallowed.

It’s obviously not ideal, but then again, nothing really is in the sports world these days. But Basketball Manitoba executive director Adam Wedlake is glad they’re making at least some progress.

“Under the new guidelines, there are 14 total hoops over the three courts (at the Sport for Life Centre), so now that limits you to 28 kids. So, basically a tenth the size of what you could do… That shows you sort of how much more restrictive it is,” Wedlake said.

While camps have a bit less to offer these days, the interest is still there from the local hoops community. Basketball Manitoba’s skill camps in late August are nearly sold out and Attack Basketball, a program led by former Winnipeg Wesmen star guard and former Red River College men’s head coach Sukhvir Singh, is running training sessions for youth out of Amber Trails Community School Monday through Friday. The Attack Basketball camp kicked off last week.

After months of no action, hoopsters are starved for anything basketball related. But even with all the restrictions in place, Singh said they’re making the best of it.

“It’s been the very first time in my life as a coach where I’ve told kids for this summer, for the next six weeks, we want you to be selfish. We want you to worry about yourself. I mean, kids aren’t allowed to rebound anyone else’s basketball, you’re not allowed to pass anyone a ball, you’re kind of really to yourself. So, we’ve been really kind of focusing on being selfish, work on your individual skill, really listen to the detailed breakdown that we’re giving you and go ahead and do it,” said Singh, a guard at the U of W from 1998-2002.

“I think being around basketball my whole life, and obviously working with the other coaches and trying to figure out ways to make it fun for the kids, I think we’ve done a really good job at teaching skills and teaching the game scenario situations where the kids are using that skill. Even though it’s 1-on-0 and there’s no defence, they’re still able to play with their mind and use their imagination. We’ve really stressed to use your imagination and mind to get through this.”

Last summer, Attack Basketball worked out of seven gyms with nearly 500 kids registered for their programs. The summer of 2020 has been a much different story as their camp is limited to the one school and 12 kids per each session.

“It’s actually been really good. I have to give the kids a high-five on this one, even though you’re not allowed to high-five,” Singh said. “But they’ve done really well at adapting, wanting to be in the gym and really taking on these kind of new rules. They’ve done really, really well. I’ve been pretty impressed with it.”

Before the gym doors were allowed to open, Attack had nearly 375 kids registered for their spring online training. They still do some online training in the mornings for those who aren’t quite ready to return to the hardwood.

“Imagine being a 12-year-old kid who’s gotten basketball taken away from them but yet, you’re logging on twice a week looking at a video and working on skills. I was impressed just with the fact that many kids kept coming back and logging on,” said Singh.

The next two phases will introduce some competition, but it will only be allowed within a team setting. Phase 3 will allow three-on-three scrimmaging and Phase 4 will permit five-on-five. Wedlake said those won’t be on the table until the government lifts some social distancing restrictions, but none of that matters if they have nowhere to play. Having enough indoor courts to play at is the next obstacle for Basketball Manitoba, which, along with the Winnipeg Minor Basketball Association, had to refund close to $350,000 for cancelled spring programming.

“The biggest question, of course, is the facilities. You can have the greatest laid plans and say ‘We’re gonna do this, this and this,’ but if you have nowhere to do it, or there’s going to be a lot of restrictions on access to facilities, that’s going to make any plan quite difficult to come to reality,” Wedlake said.

“The next hurdle we’re anticipating is what the province will announce hopefully in the next week to 10 days in return to school plans because we rely so heavily on school facilities for our sport to function.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31