Almost 100 youth basketball players wrapped up their season with the Steve Nash basketball program two weekends ago.
From March to early May, players aged eight to 17 took part in the third year of the program, which ran five days a week at three Smithers schools. Andrew Hillaby, Director of Recreation, Parks and Culture for the town of Smithers, said numbers were down a bit from previous years, but pointed to March Breaks that didn’t overlap between school systems as a possible reason for the slight drop. Coaches and other volunteer spots were all filled for the season, he said.
“We had just the right amount,” said Hillaby.
He pointed out that a number of youth are helping out with the program, many of whom started as players.
“We are getting more high school students involved in the leadership,” he said. “These are definitely youth that have come up through the system and see the value in it.”
Hillaby said next year the program will likely run from January to March, avoiding the difficulty of planning around the spring break, while also offering an alternative for youth that don’t make the ‘A’ level on the schools’ basketball teams. He said the number of high school-aged players in the league this year was very encouraging.
“They really want this, and they’re really motivated,” he said.