Kids basketball program coming to Neepawa

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Miranda Leybourne
Neepawa Banner & Press

The Town of Neepawa is excited about a brand new basketball program for children that is set to launch Monday, Jan. 15. The Neepawa Youth Basketball program, which is put on by the town and run through the Steve Nash Youth Basketball organization, is new for the community. Nicole Synchyshyn, director of recreation with the Town of Neepawa, says she saw a need for a basketball program for young people and was eager to bring one about.

“The population in Neepawa that play basketball as adults is huge. The league has over 200 people, but yet there was no program for kids,” she explained. “[The program] is designed to get kids interested in the fundamentals of sportsmanship..so [when] they approached me, I thought it would be perfect.”

The program will run until Mar. 26 and take place at the Hazel M. Kellington school gymnasium on Mondays from 5 to 6 p.m. The $60 registration fee includes the ten sessions as well as a reversible jersey, basketball, poster, drawstring bag and coin bank for each child.

“It’s really cost effective,” Synchyshyn states. “We have 20 kids registered, which is the max, and that [happened] within a week -- people were signing up like crazy, so we’ll probably have another in the fall.”

The program is aimed at children ages 7 to 12, and no prior basketball experience is necessary.

“Even if they’re just really interested and they have no skills, this program will teach them from the ground up,” Synchyshyn attests. “How to dribble properly, the rules -- they teach them little mini games throughout the lessons that lead up to the bigger games.”

The program will not run on Feb. 12 and 19.