Schools going clubbing

Players look to community teams

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

As teachers continue to withhold their services for extra-curricular activities (including sports, drama and tutoring) at schools throughout the province, as part of phase two job action, players are looking for alternatives. One of the more popular seems to be forming a club team with Basketball B.C.

Prior to the job action, Basketball B.C. had about 25 clubs in various age categories. That number has now tripled, said Michael Hind, executive director of Basketball B.C.

“There’s probably a 150 per cent growth in the number of registered clubs,” he said.

But Hind stressed he hopes there’s a quick settlement in the teachers’ dispute and that the school teams can resume their seasons. He said the community club concept is intended to complement the school programs, not replace them.

“(This is) strictly exhibition play (although) I would hope the club teams would continue to evolve and form and play after the high school season,” Hind said. “That’s when the kids need the help, much like the (club) volleyball system in place now.”

Hind said Basketball B.C. staff have been doing extensive research into club hoops for the last year and a half and expect to present a plan to its board of directors next month.

At least a couple local teams have registered as clubs with Basketball B.C., and others are likley to follow suit.

“The objective was to put a club team together to allow the students to benefit from having some type of basketball season and so they wouldn’t lose all their extra-curricular activities,” Andy Hobbs, one of the club volunteers said. “They have worked hard to achieve their personal goals and many of them are Grade 12s.”

Hobbs said he personally looks back at his extra-curricular experiences as some of his best high school memories and suggests others would agree.

“I don’t understand why anybody would wilfully deprive any student of that same opportunity,” he said. “Not all of life’s lessons are learned in the classroom. Some of the most important ones aren’t.”

Les Hamaguchi, president of the B.C. high school triple-A girls’ basketball association, said his group has set Feb. 8 as the date by which they have to decide whether the provincial championship can still go ahead.

“It (the job action) goes beyond that, the B.C. championships could be in jeopardy,” he said.

The season can’t be pushed back any more than possibly a week, he explained.

Hamaguchi said he also opposes pushing the season back and then having the teams play a condensed schedule, suggesting it could jeopardize the health and well-being of the players.

“There’s a pretty good chance a lot of them wouldn’t have played hoops for two months,” he said. “If and when we come back I don’t think it’s a situation where the players could leap right into league games. I think there has to be a little (couple days) of practise.”

Richmond school trustees are expected at their regular board meeting Monday to consider the pros and cons of three options to allow extra-curricular activities to continue in some form.

1. to stay with existing policy recognizing that volunteers can organize clubs as community groups and pay a non-profit rate to rent school facilities;

2. allow the clubs free use of school facilities during the interim;

3. no change in policy, but consider each request to rent school facilities on their own merits.