EXCITING NEW SEASON
The 2019-2020 is going to be a great season. With the Toronto Raptors winning the NBA Championship, we expect an increase in enrollment for the fourth straight year. Last year, the Brantford Boys CYO Basketball provided 770 athletes a comprehensive basketball program for boys 4-18 years of age. We hope to break the 800 athlete mark this year. Over the summer, the organization is rebuilding its website to ensure people can navigate and find information in an easy manner. Along with this, best efforts are being made to make our registration process totally automated. The program’s IT coordinators along with Roger Duck are working hard to get this in place by late August. Additional information will be provided on our social media outlets.
Over the last year, the program has established a working relationship with Laurier-Brantford. The program has celebrated a Brantford/Laurier night during our elementary tournament and several Brantford Hawks teams have practiced at this facility. Continued efforts to provide timely information on our website and social media outlets will be a priority. Please ensure that you check our website or Facebook page on a regular basis for special events. It is through the dedication of hardworking volunteers that the program has flourished and will continue to develop in the future. Providing a comprehensive, affordable and accessible basketball program to young aspiring players will continue to distinguish the Brantford Boys CYO Basketball program.
This year, the program will have a massive fundraising raffle called “COURTSIDE WITH THE RAPTORS”. The winner of this raffle will win two courtside tickets to a Toronto Raptor game in February or March of 2020. Once the NBA schedule is released, tickets will be purchased for the event. All tickets will be sold by rep teams and during elementary house league play every Saturday. Proceeds from this raffle will directly offset costs incurred by the house league/rep programs for facilities, referees, additional training and fees. At the moment, a license is being obtained for this event and this should be in place by September of 2019. Additional information will be provided on our website and social media outlets as things progress. Your support of this initiative is truly appreciated.
HOUSE LEAGUE REGISTRATION AND FEES
Registration for the 2019-2020 season will take place Saturday, September 7, 2019, from 9:00am until 1:00pm at St. John’s College on Paris Road and Assumption College on Shellard Lane.
One of our key priorities is to keep the program accessible and affordable while offering the highest value programing possible. With that in mind, the registration fee is unchanged from last year at $110.00 per player and allows every player in the organization from the ages of 8 to 18 to try out for our rep affiliate, the Brantford Hawks.
This fee allows the organization to continue to provide the quality volunteer based program that we have traditionally offered including providing each player with game shirt, banquet meal, awards and year end giveaways. A portion of the registration fee will be used for:
- Improving the quality of officiating through mentoring;
- Having carded officials present at playoff games and periodically during the regular season;
- Securing top level instruction from third party service providers of three hours for all house league participants; andProvide two
- additional dates for boys aged 8-13 via an evaluation weekend used to identify rep players.
Family discounts of $10 for two or more from a family and $25 for 3 or more from a family.
HOUSE LEAGUE SCHEDULES
The house league for high school aged players starts the week after registration with skills training provided by Maga Basketball on Saturday, September 14th. Times for the skills training will be provided on September 7th. Each age group will receive at a minimum a 90 minute session during their scheduled time. League play will run Saturdays and Sundays starting on September 21st. The season will end on November 3, 2019. This program serves as a good warm up for those boys planning on playing high school basketball.
As usual, the house league for elementary boys (4 to 13) will run on Saturdays starting on October 21, 2019 and will run until early March. The program anticipates that enrollment will increase again for the fourth straight year. Given this, the Bantam division will be held at a site other than St. John’s College. Further information regarding this issue will be provided after registration via our website and social media outlets. Last year, the program was fortunate to secure BCI for house league play.
The program has also decided to place significant emphasis on skill development in its Rookie division (ages 4-7). This will include station based skill sessions during the majority of the year and provide a more detailed and longer set of skills sessions during the beginning of the year. This program has greatly improved the skill sets of players entering the rep program once they turn eight. Last year, the Brantford Hawks Novice teams finished in Division 1 and Division 4 in the Province. This was the best year for both teams in the past decade. Nick Esposito has been the convenor of the Rookie Division for the past two years and has done an exceptional job overseeing the division.
Every player from the age of 8-13 will be encouraged to attend two days of additional basketball in September at the program’s evaluation days. These days will be used to evaluate players so teams can be organized. Along with this, coaches from the rep programs will be attending and evaluating potential players for the rep program. The following weekend, all players are encouraged to attend rep tryouts. More details regarding the timing of the tryouts will be made available during the annual registration on September 8th.
HOUSE LEAGUE COACHES CLINIC
Brantford Boys CYO Basketball will also look into hosting another coaching clinic targeted towards house league coaches. This program will be two hours in duration orientated towards providing basic drills and techniques to help our House League coaches feel more confident throughout the season. The program has secured the long-time Brantford Hawks and CWOSSA winning coach, Tim O’ Neail, to run this session. Again, one of our rep teams will be used during this process to show the coaches how to organize a team and run meaningful drills. Further details will be provided once a date has been formalized/confirmed as permits have not been confirmed by the school board.
VOLUNTEERS
Our success depends on our volunteers. Anyone who has played basketball in the past is encouraged to help out. We need more volunteers and if you are approached by an executive member we kindly ask that you consider helping out. The success of the CYO program over the years has been through the dedicated work of volunteers. Without their support the CYO program would not be able to function. Some of the spots available are conveners, coaches and timers. All high school students are encouraged to volunteer so they can earn their community hours.
COACHING DEVELOPMENT FOR BRANTFORD
Brantford Boys CYO Basketball is excited and proud to offer its coaches professional development opportunities. Once opportunities and programs are announced to the general public, these camps/programs will be outlined on our website and twitter account. Depending on the cost of the camp, CYO will explore funding arrangements for interested parties.
PLAYER DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING
A major mandate of the program is player development. This will continue through several instructors including Steve Maga and J.R. Galarza. Other instructors including Mihai Raducanu and hometown OCAA coaching success story Brian Jonker will continue to partner with our organization to provide access to training opportunities right here in Brantford allowing our young players to develop, refine and hone their skills.Through these individuals we will again offer the following:
- Introduction to Basketball – We will see Steve Maga back to offer three one-hour skill sessions, for every age of house league during the season. His session will occur throughout the season focusing in on various skills to develop players.
- Elite Training – Elite training opportunities will be offered again throughout the 2019-2020 season via a six week program. Further details regarding the next edition of this program will be outlined in the New Year so look for more info on our website or on Twitter.
- Basic Skills Development and Individual Training – Boys registered with Brantford Boys CYO Basketball will have an opportunity to attend camps conducted by Maga Basketball in Ancaster, Ontario, during the summer months and March break at discounted rates. CYO players will also have access to Maga Basketball and Elite Performance (Raducanu) to assist them in improving in a certain area or help them develop customized programs and discounted rates.REFERRES CLINIC
We have tentatively set Friday, October 4, 2019, at Tollgate Technological Secondary School from 6:30pm to 9:00pm for our referee clinic. All current and new referees must attend. Individuals must be 12 years of age or older. The session will be provided by longtime partner of CYO the Brant/Norfolk Basketball Officials Association. In addition to learning about the fundamentals of sound officiating, an evaluation will be conducted to identify qualified prospects to referee games during the 2019-2020 season. A formal post will be published on the website as we near the date. Last year, two of our officials were promoted to the local referee’s panel and became OABO certified officials. Over the past three years, seven officials have become OABO members. Jim Chmiel, the President of the Local Refereeing board, has always believed in recruiting from the CYO program and giving young officials an opportunity. We would like to acknowledge Jim and his executive team for being a continued supporter of the Brantford Boys CYO program and being a key third party service provider.
BRANTFORD HAWKS – REP BASKETBALL
The following are the rep coaches for the 2019-2020 season:
- Novice #1 – Under 10 (Born 2010-11) Kyle McNiven
- Novice #2 – Under 10 (Born 2010-11) Dan Johnson
- Atom #1 – Under 11 (Born 2009) Derek McGrattan
- Atom #2 – Under 11 (Born 2009) Bonnie Biscoe
- Major Atom – Under 12 (Born 2008) Mike Taylor
- Major Atom #2 – Under 12 (Born 2008) Bill Gemmel
- Bantam – Under 13 (Born 2007) Steve Evans
- Bantam #2 – Under 13 (Born 2007) Mark Waserman
- Major Bantam #1 – Under 14 (Born 2006) Tim O’Neail
- Major Bantam #2 – Under 14 (Born 2006) Jason Rose
- Midget #1– Under 15 (Born 2005) Jeff Steane
- Midget #2 – Under 15 (Born 2005) Mark Gemmel
- Major Midget #1 – Under 16 (Born 2004) Dan Chagnon
- Major Midget #2 – Under 16 (Born 2004) Jonathan Bates
- Juvenile #1– Under 17 (Born 2003) Kate Polischuk
- Juvenile #1– Under 17 (Born 2003) Simon Salole
- Junior – Under 19 (Born 2001-2002) Craig Johnson
- Junior – Under 19 (Born 2001-2002) Steve EvansThere could be additional teams depending on the number of players trying out and coaches. This is the first time that every division will have two teams provided enough players come out to participate.
Commitments for the teams are as follows:
Elementary Aged Teams (ages 8 to 13): 2 to 3 practices per week, participation in approximately 3 tournaments, 12 OBA League games; exhibition games and participation in the provincial play downs. Every coach will advise their team whether or not they will be participating in the Ontario Basketball League.
Novice Rep players participate in a Monday night house league. Atom to Major Bantam players do not participate in house league but will be exposed to additional high impact skill sessions.
High School Aged Teams (ages 14 to 18): 2 practices per week, participation in 12 OBA League games; exhibition games and participation in the provincial play downs.
The elementary Rep season runs from October to the end of March or early April. The high-school Rep season runs from mid-March to the end of May. Ideally, we would like to have two teams at each age group at the elementary age groups. We encourage as many boys as possible to attend tryouts which will take place the weekend of September 21-22 and be posted at registration. The costs associated with the rep program can range from $400.00 to $550.00 depending on how many tournaments the team plays.
TOURNAMENTS
Our annual tournaments will be held January 23-26, 2020, (elementary aged) and May 8-10, 2020, as well as May 22-24, 2020, for high school aged players. Due to scheduling issues created by the Ontario Basketball Association, the U13 rep teams will host at a time to be determined.
SPONSORS
Brantford Boys CYO Basketball is fortunate to have many supporters and sponsors within the community. Our most significant contributor is Insta-Insulation, as the flagship sponsor of the Paul Mitchell Tournament. We have been fortunate to secure the sponsorship of several great local companies. Please see our website for additional details.
PICTURE DAYS
All elementary players participating in the Saturday house league program and elementary rep programs will participate in a picture day. Last year, the program introduced an elementary rep picture day that was well received by parents, players and coaches. The following are the dates for these events:
- Rookie/Novice/Atom Divisions of House League – November 16, 2019 @ SJC; and
- Bantam Division & Rep teams – December 7th, 2019 @ BCI
A schedule for the rep teams will be provided as the date approaches. Kindly be mindful of these dates and mark them on your calendar to ensure your son(s) participation. Due to the costs associated with a professional photographer, there will be no second/supplemental/additional picture dates.
BANQUET
The annual banquet will be held at Branlyn on Saturday March, 14, 2020. This function is broken into two sessions where the younger elementary players will attend the brunch session and the older elementary players will attend a dinner session. The Executive Team realizes that some players might not be able to attend this session due to travel plans surrounding March break. As such, any awards not collected at the banquet will be available during a three-hour period (9:00am – 12:00pm) at a facility to be determined. Any awards or items not collected at this time will be placed in storage until September 2020. In the event that a parent is not able to attend the banquet or the additional pickup session, arrangements should be made with the player’s coach so the award/item can be collected on a more convenient date. Please note that the program’s executive team may make some changes this year to the banquet format. A determination will be made in September about the banquet format.
Reverend Monsignor Roach Scholarship
The Brantford Boys CYO program provides an annual scholarship to an individual who is moving onto third level education. This year, the program received several quality applications for this award. The Brantford Boys CYO program would like to recognize the 2019 winners of this award:
• Ben Kwasnik–will be attending McMaster University this fall; and
• Ethan Andrew – will be attending the University of Waterloo this fall.
Their contributions to the program over the past ten years has added value to our organization. The executive team would like to thank these young men and wish them continued success.
New Members
This year, the program would like to welcome and thank a few people for their service to the Brantford Boys CYO program. First, we would like to welcome:
- Nick Esposito – New executive team member;
- Jeff Spencer – Facilities Manager; and
- Jen Dallaway – Administrator and IT support.These individuals have been with the program for several years and their commitment to the organization has provided them new and exciting challenges in different roles. There is no doubt that they will add value to the organization.
The program would also like to recognize Shelley Keats, Dana Steane and David Tayler. These individuals have assisted the program immensely during a time of significant growth. Their efforts are truly appreciated. They have all advised the organization that they would continue to assist and support the program in times of need. Their efforts and commitment are truly appreciated and they will always be welcomed back.