If something new gets a warm reception, it’s a safe bet it has potential to grow.
That’s proven to be true for the summer basketball program offered budding basketball players on the west coast by the Humber Valley Basketball Club under the keen eye of coach Jonathan Snow.
The club offered a summer program last year for the first time to students in grades 6-8 in the Corner Brook area with six weeks of instruction and game play.
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The first season went better than Snow expected, with both the male and female divisions strong with some 60 boys and girls involved.
The west coast has been producing some quality talent over the past couple of years and it’s no secret that more touches on the ball only bodes well for the development of young players. So, a summer league is right up the alley for the elite who want to take their game to another level.
Snow was pleased to see the numbers see a slight rise as the program went on last summer, but it was the competitiveness that stood out for Snow in the inaugural year.
“The games were exciting and the kids got into them,” Snow said. “We had a couple of upsets in the finals, which was good because it allowed that any team could always have a chance at winning, so the kids got into it.”
This summer, with the program starting on July 10, Snow will be expanding to include Grade 9 students in the mix.
He said there were a lot of Grade 8 students who played in the summer league who asked about the possibility of having Grade 9s added this year because they wanted to play again so Snow had no problems with adding some extra time slots.
The program will run Tuesday and Thursdays 6-8 p.m. with the grade 6-7 students in one group and the grade 8-9 students in the other one.
Snow is waiting for confirmation on the venue for the program. He expects to have the final word on that over the next week.
