Western News Staff
The Lake City Basketball Club is offering a Fall Youth League.
Russ Reid and Brian Hurst, former co-coaches of the Princess Margaret Mustangs senior boys basketball team for four years, are creating the league.
The program is seeking males and females in grades two to five and will be divided based on grades and gender. A wide range of abilities will be accepted. The program has athletes from Penticton, Summerland, Keremeos and Oliver signed up. Parents interested in signing their kids up are asked to go to the Lake City website lakecitybasketball.weebly.com/. Scroll down to find the link to Fall League.
The Fall Youth League will take place on Sundays for eight weeks starting Sept. 25. The one hour and fifteen minute sessions will be divided into skills and games.
Reid, who coached the Pen High Laker Grade 9 girls team, said the success with the U13, 15 and 17 age groups encouraged them to look at offering younger athletes an opportunity to develop their basketball skills and have fun.
“Building on similar principals of the older Lake City programs the focus of the youth league will be the development of fundamental skills,” he said. “Together Brian and I have over 20 years of coaching experience. We have coached a wide variety of age groups over the years. We are excited to offer this opportunity to athletes at the elementary level and look forward to developing the program in the coming years.”
In early July, Lake City Basketball’s under-14 girls won the Western Canada Championship. Lake City Basketball Club co-director Chris Terris said it was a fantastic Spring for the first year of the program. He now hopes the championship and the exposure to development opportunities that are available to kids who are passionate about the sport will help the program grow.
“It seems that there’s a definite interest in South Okanagan communities to see other opportunities as well,” said Terris. “We want to focus on growing the sport at the younger levels and providing competitive opportunities for skill development.”
