University players help Iqaluit students sharpen basketball skills

Some of Iqaluit’s young basketball players sharpened their skills recently with the help of three women from the University of Regina Cougars basketball team.

The team ran a clinic over the weekend of June 2 and taught basketball in school gym classes the week prior.

“They’re pretty good, and their interest in the sport is awesome,” said instructor Cara Misskey.

Two of the instructors, Misskey and Jade Belmore, are Cougars team players while the third, Ryenn Schutz, will join the team next season.

The clinic comes as the Nunavut Basketball Association, known as NUBA, attempts to grow the sport across the territory.

The three Cougars team members started by teaching new skills to the kids in the camp.

From left, Jade Belmore, Ryenn Schutz and Cara Misskey led basketball clinics in Iqaluit recently. Belmore and Misskey are currently playing for the University of Regina’s women’s basketball team, while Schutz is a recruit who will play next year. (Photo courtesy of NUBA)

“Things they’ve probably never seen before,” Misskey said. “We tried to make it fun and exciting at the same time.”

The skills development was part of a build-up toward a three-on-three tournament. There was a division for kids in grades 6 to 9, and another for teenagers in grades 9 to 12.

“Oh, they were amazing,” Misskey said of the young players, adding the Cougars players loved hosting the camp.

“It was hard to leave, even though we were there for a short time.”

Misskey said she wanted to come to Iqaluit to give players the same opportunity at high-level training that she had when she was younger. She added it was good to have an all-female coaching crew for the clinic, especially for the four or five girls who took part.

“I think it’s so important to grow [the sport of basketball], especially the female side too,” she said.

The Iqaluit clinic is part of a larger effort by NUBA to make basketball more popular all across the territory.

Over the next two years, organizers plan to hold basketball camps in communities throughout Nunavut, said Abbas Parks, the Qikiqtani representative on NUBA’s board of directors.

The basketball association will mostly target communities that have not had as much opportunity to play basketball, he said. There will also be camps to help promote the sport where it is already popular, such as Baker Lake.

Last March, a basketball camp was held in Whale Cove with the help of NUBA.

“Overall, we just want more participation in the sport and kids having fun with it,” Parks said.