Badgers basketball looking for Strathmore players

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

When the Chestermere-Langdon-Strathmore (CLS) Badgers minor basketball association president Clay Watson took over the program last June, his vision was to expand out from the previous 20 years of being a Chestermere-only association to the surrounding areas of Langdon and Strathmore to meet the growing interest in the sport.
This was the first season the association had mixed groups, where they ended up with seven teams that all medaled in the CMBA.
The program has teams for both boys and girls: at the tyke U9 level, who play in the East Pro house league in Calgary, while the mini U11, U13 bantam, U15 midget and U17 juvenile play in the Calgary Minor Basketball Association (CMBA).
Watson said there weren’t as many players that came out from Strathmore as anticipated but knows there are lots of kids who play basketball in town.
“Our zone actually has Langdon and Strathmore players,” said Watson. “But before when it was Chestermere Minor Basketball, they never really let anybody know that. We want to let all those people out in that area this is where you need to come and play ball. We got a really good response from Langdon this year and our focus this year will be on Strathmore.”
He pointed out that one great thing about the CMBA is that it’s community basketball where there is a focus on putting proper talent levels together from Division 1 all the way to Division 7.
When the season starts the Badgers do a seeding round, where they’ll be playing games against other teams to determine in which division they’ll place.
The Badgers are currently hosting a spring clinic for those players in Grades 4, 5 and 6.
“It’s basically a skill session,” said Watson. “What we’re trying to do is teach the kids stuff they need to know. You can use it as two ways, just as a skills session where you want to get better at basketball or what we’re trying to do is to get kids ready for the fall season.
“That’s one of the things we’re trying to do with this skills session is for those kids stepping up to U13 from U11. They’ll get the chance to do a whole spring on a main rim.”
The clinic costs $60 and began on April 6, and will run every Wednesday until June 15 at Chestermere’s East Lake School. There are approximately 10 to 15 slots left.
Additionally, there is a U13 and U15 boys team playing in a spring league, who recently played their first game and will go until the first week of June.
There are a couple of slots to fill on both teams and the cost to play is $175.
Early registration is now available online for the fall league until the pre-registration day in June which is to be determined.
More information on camps and registration can be found at www.clsmba.ca or on Facebook at CLS Minor Basketball Association.