The Lake City Club Basketball program will hit the court at Pen High next month.
Lake City Club Basketball is a multi-age, competitive program tailored to South Okanagan athletes. The basketball program has been created to rival any in the province and provides athletes who are passionate about the sport a chance to develop their skills in a competitive, nurturing environment.
“I’ve been coaching basketball in Penticton for 20 years now. It’s time for a program like this,” said Pen High Lakers coach Chris Terris, who came up with the idea for the program. “Some of our keenest athletes have been traveling to programs at the coast and Kelowna, but it puts a tremendous strain on parents traveling twice a week for practices. This will give them the same competitive opportunities but allow them to stay closer to home.”
Depending on interest, six teams will be offered for boys and girls ranging from under 13 to 17. Identification camps for all the teams will be on April 2. Teams will practice twice a week and play a series of highly competitive tournaments in Kelowna and Vancouver. These tournaments attract teams from all over Western Canada and the United States. It will give players a chance to play against some strong players in their age group.
“It’s the only way we can stay competitive with our rivals up in the north,” said Dustin Hyde, who is an organizer of the program with Terris. “What we found is our players kept leaving us to go there because they offer much more competitive programs.”
Hyde added that offering this under one umbrella is a better approach. Working with the players are some of the areas most successful, passionate and experienced coaches including Colin Cook, Andrew Knudsen (Pen High), Russ Reid, Brian Hurst, Eron Labadie (KVR Grade 8), Darsh Sidhu (Mustang junior boys), Kevin Lodermeier (Summerland), Todd Manuel (Pen High) and Mo Basso (Oliver Hornets). They will be assisted by several former players who are now playing at college or university. Hyde said they are hopeful they get players and that the program will grow over time. He added the first year could be the hardest, but said as they offer teams, experience success, that it will grow.
“Hopefully you draw more and more talent to your program,” said Hyde.
Girls’ teams will practice on Mondays and Wednesdays and boys’ teams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Pen High. Athletes and families that are interested in getting involved should visit the website to register for the ID Camp http://lakecitybasketball.weebly.com/. Questions can also be emailed to lake.city.hoops@gmail.com.
The program will operate from April until the end of June.
