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Canada's New Domestic Basketball League Celebrates July 1st! E-mail
Written by Off The Wire on Wednesday, 27 April 2011

The American Basketball Association (www.abalive.com) is making its return back to Canada. Starting this Canada Day, July 1st weekend, ABA-Canada (www.aba-canada.ca) will play host to the Canadian Basketball Festival (www.cbf2011.ca) in Oshawa where it will showcase four of the Leagues' initial franchises.

At the helm is Bill Crowdis, who was announced as the Director of Operations for ABA-Canada this past August. The former Canadian college/university basketball player and coach has his eyes set on creating a Canadian domestic league that will directly add support to the current Canadian basketball development system. The new Director explains, "True development of our basketball community is our primary focus and rather than coordinate competing agendas of independent clubs, ABA-Canada will ensure that competition be restricted to on the court."

Every year, elite Canadian basketball players are being regulated to competing in recreational leagues after their post-secondary careers end, simply because there is no other place for them to play. "Our overall goal is to develop a domestic summer league that will give players, 19 years of age and over, an opportunity to train, develop and compete.", said Crowdis. "I believe ABA-Canada is also a logical place to develop Canadian coaches, officials and administrators. We aren't trying to change the world here, nor take over or replace anything that is successful in our basketball community. We are looking to add something that does not currently exist in our development system and I believe "we", as in everyone in the basketball communtiy, can work together on this project."

ABA-Canada has named Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa and Oshawa as the four teams that will be competing in this year's Canadian Basketball Festival. The League has been actively reaching out to leaders in the basketball communtiy to discuss the state of basketball in Canada and what can be done to improve the current development process for Canadian players. The creation of an ABA-Canada Advisory Committee has begun and already includes such basketball leaders as:

  • Kirk Alfaro, the publisher of the Hamilton-based TheHoop-La.com

  • Ken Murray, former Head Coach Broock University and 2-time CIS champion

  • Dave Smart, Head Coach & 7-time CIS champion at Carleton University

  • Barry Hayes, founder of HoopStarsCanada.com

  • Thomas Cory, Algoma University Head Coach

  • Mike George, Founder CIA Bounce

  • Roy Rana, Ryerson University Head Coach

Crowdis explains, "Every region has a unique basketball culture and in order for this initiative to work, the leaders from every region need to come together to discuss and coordinate how to best develop the talent base in their surrounding basketball community."

The Canadian Basketball Festival will be a day-long event held at Oshawa's Durham College/UOIT campus on Canada Day. Running in conjunction with the ABA-Canada showcase will be an ABA 3on3 competition (www.aba3on3.ca) and Kids Zone for children 10 & under. Musical performances throughout the day will celebrate the lifestyle and culture of Canadian basketball with proceeds from the event going towards supporting the Take Pride Campaign (www.take-pride.ca) which is a not-for-profit initiative helping Canadian youth, youth organizations and student-athletes who are in need.



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3.23 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
 
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