OLDS — An eight-week basketball camp has been set up in Olds to help elementary school-age children learn to love the game.
The camp, called the Olds Hoops Lab, are held Mondays, starting March 10, from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Holy Trinity Catholic School gym.
The junior NBA camp is designed for two cohorts of kids: those in grades 3-4 and 5-6.
It’s the brainchild of Holy Trinity Catholic School teacher Kyle Young,
Young has enlisted the help of Olds College men’s Broncos basketball team head coach David Kapinga and Amber Pedlar, assistant coach of the Olds College women’s Broncos basketball team, along with an interested parent who also serves as a referee.
“It’s something that I’ve thought about for the last few years,” Young said during an interview with the Albertan.
“One thing I noticed in Olds, they do a lot of good things for younger kids with hockey, baseball/softball kind of stuff.
“My passion in sports kind of lies in basketball, so I wanted to try to find a way to give access to younger students, to give them the opportunity to find the love of basketball early.”
Young said there is a cost to attend the camp, but organizers have worked hard to keep that cost as low as feasible.
Young noted that both Airdrie and Calgary have minor basketball associations. However, he felt that creating a minor basketball association in Olds would be “a bit of a large task,” so the camp seemed like a more feasible option.
Young grew up in a community south of Halifax, N.S. and after becoming a teacher, found his way to Olds, along with his wife.
While studying education in New Brunswick, Young played university basketball.
“I was more of a bench-warmer there but I got to compete against former CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) players and incredibly talented players from all around Canada,” he said. “And there I really found my place and my joy in the creativity and the competition. It was awesome.”
Young is pretty confident enough kids will participate to make the camp a success.
“I’m aiming for around 30 to 40 kids for this first go-round,” he said. “I’d love to see it hit that and then even get a wait list where we can look at it for next fall to now build some more momentum with it.”
He notes that as a physical education (PE) teacher, his job is to introduce kids to different sports. In addition to exposing kids to sports like German handball and volleyball, basketball is introduced.
Young said the kids won’t be coached on basketball strategy per se, but he’s confident they’ll soak that up.
“We’ll use games and in games, kids will learn on their own. That’s the really cool thing about the younger levels. They’ll see things differently than we adults can even see it,” he said.
“Any way to get a basketball in a kid’s hands, right?”
