Rankin Inlet school kids practise dribbling during a basketball training session with Winnipeg Sea Bears on Jan. 28. (Photo courtesy of EPLS Group of Companies)

‘Everything we hoped it would be’: Rankin Inlet students learn basketball with Sea Bears

Coach, player from Winnipeg pro team spend day working with young players

By Arty Sarkisian

More than 100 Rankin Inlet students spent a day last week running, dribbling and shooting hoops with Winnipeg’s elite basketball team.

“I think it was just everything we hoped it would be,” said Mike Taylor, head coach for the Winnipeg Sea Bears, in an interview from his home in Jacksonville, Fla.

“It was a lot of fun and I think we made a positive impact.”

The Sea Bears are a men’s professional basketball team that competes in the 10-team Canadian Elite Basketball League. Other squads are based in places like Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal.

Winnipeg Sea Bears player Emmanuel Akot running with one of the Rankin Inlet students during a basketball training session in the community on Jan. 28. (Photo courtesy of EPLS Group of Companies)

Before starting the new season in May, Taylor and Sea Bears six-foot-eight forward Emmanuel Akot joined Rankin Inlet students in grades 6 to 12 on Jan. 28 for a day of basketball training sessions sponsored by Northern Networks Ltd.

The team started planning the event last summer with Chad Posthumus, who at the time was the Sea Bears’ captain, said Tim Hothi, manager of marketing and strategic partnerships for EPLS Group of Companies, a subsidiary of Northern Networks.

Initially, they were to visit several Nunavut communities. But in November, as the details of the trip were being finalized, Posthumus died of a brain aneurysm.

Despite that, the team decided to still move forward with the plan and organized the sessions in Rankin Inlet “to honour his memory,” Taylor said.

More than 100 middle school and high school players were divided into six groups and taught the basics of basketball.

Even though Rankin Inlet is a hockey town, the kids listened, were “focused” and “coachable,” Taylor said, adding it was a great “personal experience” for him to travel to the Canadian North.

Some players were very skilled, he said, and with more training could become good players in the future.

Winnipeg Sea Bears head coach Mike Taylor gives out a wristband to a Rankin Inlet student during a Jan. 28 basketball training session. (Photo courtesy of EPLS Group of Companies)

The Sea Bears also brought a couple of dozen basketballs and some team promotional items for the kids, and sessions usually ended with students asking Taylor and Akot for selfies and autographs, Hothi said.

“You don’t really see opportunities like this where you have a professional athlete and a head coach visit and spend time with the youth,” he said, adding that in winters when there is not much sunlight, events like this are welcomed.

“We’d definitely love to do this again sometime and visit more neighbouring communities in Nunavut as well,” Hothi said.

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