by Stephen Dafoe
Basketball for all ages is happening in Morinville. The Morinville Youth Basketball Association are currently running programs for ages 6 to 8 on up to an adult drop-in program at MCHS.
Morinville Youth Basketball Association President James Bedford told Morinville News the new Mighty Mites program, which started in mid-January, is a free camp running from now until June.
“The response has been incredible,” Bedford said, adding 25 children registered, 19 of whom new to our association. “We hope that the majority of these kids will stick with basketball and that it will pay off in a few years.”
Bedford is hoping to strengthen the association by having children learn the game sooner. It’s a beneficial ambition as the associations MYBA compete against within the Edmonton Youth Basketball Association have had a Mites program in place for years.
“It really is a sight to see all of these kids in the Notre Dame gym having a great time learning the game,” Bedford said.
Sabretooths having rough season
Bedford said this season has been disappointing for most of the Sabretooth teams, at least as far as game results go.
“A few of our teams started out strong, but after the EYBA re-seeded all teams after the first 4-5 games of the season most of our teams struggled since – with a few bright spots here and there,” Bedford said. “EYBA playoffs will be starting on February 11th though, and all of our teams will get to play 2-3 games.”
Adult drop-in basketball
At the other end of the court spectrum, Bedford has been running a weekly drop-in basketball night for players aged 16 and up.
“We play every Sunday night at MCHS from 7 to 9 p.m., and we typically have between 8-12 players,” Bedford explained. “This was actually the idea of one of our coaches, Jason Misener, who brought it up with me last summer. I brought the idea to [Town of Morinville employee] Tyler Edworthy, and he jumped on board in terms of arranging the gym time for us and helping to advertise the program.”
Bedford said they have a few players coming up from Edmonton every week, and a handful of locals as well.
“We welcome players of all skill levels, and we try to split up into evenly balanced teams,” Bedford said. “Everyone is there mainly to have fun, exercise, and socialize while being active. It’s not overly competitive, at least until we get to the last couple points of the game, then we tend to focus on winning a little bit more.
For more information on Morinville Youth Basketball Association programs visit morinvilleyouthbasketball.com.
