2019 was a huge year for us, we were able to accomplish some remarkable things as an organization. We were able to run 21 club teams (16 boys teams and 5 girls teams spanning from U17 down to U13), 12 training programs, 4 Jr NBA programs, 4 camps, 2 tournaments, and 1 league. We had 252 athletes in our spring/summer programming and worked with just 408 different athletes on the year through various programming.
Spring was the start of a huge period of growth for us, we checked off many benchmarks during the spring and summer seasons. We experienced such a large boom that we have almost doubled all of our programming. We doubled our Jr NBA from 2 programs to 4 programs running year round; we also doubled from 2 to 4 US trips across the club program; we went from hosting 1 tournament to hosting 2 tournaments in spring and we also more than doubled from 10 to 21 total club teams.
A key part of our growth was having both of our host tournaments: the GOOD Hoops Classic (May 10 - 12, 2019) and the GOOD Hoops Summer Slam (May 31 - June 2, 2019). Here is a deeper look at their impact.
The 2019 GOOD Hoops Classic went from hosting 42 teams in 2018 to hosting 76 teams and had approximately 912 athletes action in 2019. The classic brought in teams from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 2019. The tournament added girls divisions at the 17U, 15U and 13U age groups and hosted 21 total girls teams in 2019.
The 2019 GOOD Hoops Summer Slam was a hit in year one, also bringing in exactly 76 teams and roughly 912 athletes into competition as well. Similar size and a lot of out of province representation from BC and Saskatchewan respectively. The tournament hosted 30 girls teams and 46 boys teams in 2019.
Our program has been growing drastically every year. 2019 was full of growth for our boys program and we laid a foundation for our girls program for years to come.
The boys side of our program grew from 10 teams in 2018 to 16 teams in 2019. We added a 13U age group with 4 new teams as well as growing from 5 teams to 6 teams in both 17U and 15U age groups. 2019 was the inaugural year for our girls program; we began with 5 teams distributed as 2 17U, 2 15U and 1 13U team(s). We had approximately 60 female athletes in our first year of girls programming. We attend a variety of tournaments to allow our kids optimal exposure to high level competition - we were able to take the following trips in 2019 with our program:
1) Genesis Classic - 14 teams attended this tournament in Calgary.
2) Junior Dinos Classic - 8 teams attended this tournament in Calgary.
3) Battle In Seattle - 4 teams attended this tournament in Seattle.
4) Summer Tip Off - 2 teams attended this tournament in Phoenix.
5) EOT Showcase - 2 teams attended this tournament in Portland.
6) World Championships - 4 teams attended this tournament in Los Angeles.
7) WCE Summer Classic - 4 teams attended this tournament in Los Angeles.
Athlete first, always - the goals of our athletes fuel our program. We have motivated students who understand the goal is to keep balance and gain opportunities through competitive sport.
We have plenty of multi-sport athletes within our program who go on to pursue other sports as their passion through post secondary, we have two football athletes to highlight this year in particular:
1) Ajou Ajou is signed and headed to the NCAA D1 Clemson Tigers in 2020.
2) Kolby Hurford is signed and headed to USports University of Alberta in 2020.
We have a handful of athletes each year who go on to play higher levels of basketball and pursue their education further, here is our list of alumni currently playing basketball:
Prep (USA): Madit Lueeth (Wesley Christian), Awer Awer (Wesley Christian) and Tong Agar (Wesley Christian).
Prep (CAN): Darren Hunter (Holy Cross Catholic), Ben Simmons (Northstar Prep), Diaz LaGrone (Oakville Prep).
CCAA (CAN): Dane Philipenko (Augustana), Vishal Dhillon (NAIT), Paul Adonri (NAIT), Peter Adonri (NAIT), Carsten Ritter (Concordia University), Alex MacLean (Concordia University), Ameer Dhillon (Concordia University), Mikey Chamberlin (Concordia University), Nathan Kurikilodil (Grande Prairie), Saxon Joyes (Grande Prairie), Cartar May (UNBSJ), Dawson Smadis (Keyano College), Roy Anku (Durham College)
USports (CAN): Daniel McLaren (University of Alberta), Jack MacPherson (University of Alberta), Colton Halbersma (MacEwan University), Tylar Dobish (MacEwan University), Jaden Matthews (University of New Brunswick), Malik Pottinger (University of Toronto), Rele Orimalade (McGill University), Fareed Shittu (University of Northern British Columbia), Nik Akophjanov (University of Saskatchewan).
NJCAA (USA): Ater Magok (Frank Phillips College)
