The
Warwickshire Basketball Association has added a community coup for young
people in and around Coventry which will see the introduction of a Youth
Basketball League.
The
Coventry and Warwickshire Youth Basketball League as it will be known,
is thought to begin its experimental phase with six to eight local boys
and girls youth teams at Under 12 and under 14 levels, with the
possibility there for under 16s and under 18s to take part.
Four of
those teams making up the league’s first season are expected to consist
of youngsters from the Crusaders’ ever present community projects, with
other external clubs invited to join the league.
The
competition will run in two 10 week periods starting in September and
January, and begins at Coventry Sports Centre on September 19th.
The
project will be funded and administered by the WBA, who currently
oversee ten divisions that cater for men, ladies and junior basketball.
The WBA
also monitors the Warwickshire area’s coaching and officiating courses
which enable qualification under the England Basketball Association
accredited schemes, which as a result will allow an increased amount of
matches to be facilitated in the future.
With the
potential being shown from previous figures of up to 700 young people
participating in community activities in Coventry during peak holiday
times, the local basketball governing body is faced with the challenge
of getting youngsters to participate competitively on a regular basis.
“We’ve
been training young people in primary and secondary schools, but then
they don’t have an outlet to competing on a regular basis.” revealed
Crusader Foundation Director Scott Neely, who in conjunction with the
City Council, has been liaising with the WBA to find a way to bring all
of the local clubs together.
Trying to
put his finger on why it has taken around twelve years since the
Crusader Foundation was formed for a governing organisation such as the
WBA to push for a youthful competitive franchise in an area that’s so
heavily subject to community coaching; Neely puts forward some
interesting answers.
“I think
what happens in a lot of the sports is a lot of the clubs don’t want to
communicate because they feel like they’re going to lose their players,
and I’ve heard about that in football, rugby and it’s kind of ‘we train
up our club, and so we don’t want as much contact in competition (with
local teams)’.
“They look
at each other as not really enemies, but definite competitors for
potential players coming to clubs” he added.
“I also
think some of the infrastructure wasn’t there before. You might have had
a lot of kids that wanted to play, but you need table officials,
referees. It’s the stuff around the sport where if you don’t have
anybody who can help facilitate the matches, then how can it happen?”
“Over the
past couple of years we’ve been trying to train up coaches, table
officials.
Clubs at
the youth level are now trained to train up not just players, but from a
development standpoint to have people to facilitate things”.
The coming
weeks and months will open an exciting experimental journey for the
youth of Coventry; posing great expectations of evolution will come
about from plenty of learning curves for players, organisers and
officials alike.
For more
information about the Warwickshire Basketball Association and the
Coventry and Warwickshire Youth Basketball League, log onto
www.warwickshirebasketball.co.uk where the association’s members,
development officers, coaches, match officials and affiliated basketball
clubs all have their contact details available.
Story courtesy of Adam Manning (Crusaders Reporter)
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