Basketball NWT had never tried anything like this before: a camp with more than just the usual dribble-shoot-pass drills.It was called the Empower Camp, which saw close to 90 youth from around the territory converge on the capital for a weekend filled with skills, drills and education on everything that matters to a young athlete. In addition to the on-court instruction, the athletes received an education in mental health, nutrition, fitness and even yoga.
Cole Marshall, Basketball NWT's technical director, said there were some learning curves but the overall feeling is that it was successful.
"They got some mental health training, they got to hear from a sports psychologist, they got to hear from a nutritionist," he said. "We delivered what we had promised to the kids and it's always good when you can deliver what you said you would."
Graeme Ryder led the on-court business, he's a Northern boy who's gone on to do plenty of good in the south. Ryder is a former student of Sir John Franklin High School in Yellowknife who is now the assistant coach of the women's basketball program at MacEwan University in Edmonton.
Ryder was lacking a voice by the time the final session rolled around on July 8 and he said that meant it went as well as it could have in terms of the drills.
"We had so many kids come in from the communities and I hope they had fun like I did," he said. "I'm hoping they can learn something from me and I just hope they have a lot of fun with it.
They're never going to learn anything if they don't have that passion for the game and there was a lot of passion this weekend."
Selling the camp to Ryder wasn't a problem, either.
"Cole came to me with the idea and he said it was going to be big," said Ryder. "He had big dreams with it and as soon as he said it, I tried to make sure I had an open weekend to come up so I was glad to be a part of it."
After the on-court sessions were done with, the young players got the chance to learn from professionals in their various fields about the personal side of being an athlete. Matt Bain of Grande
Prairie, Alta., led the sports psychology talks while nutritionist Lorie Crawford of Yellowknife spoke about the importance of eating right.
On the fitness side, Scott Thomson, the co-owner of Just Fitness in Yellowknife and Devin Madsen from the Racquet Club talked about the fitness end of things.
Julian Browning of Fort Simpson was one of the community players and said he was looking to get as full an experience as he could.
"I just wanted to meet some new people and get a refresher on things I already knew," he said.
As to what he knows now that he didn't before, he said learning about the importance of mental health was a big one.
Nutrition? That's already in the bag.
"I already know how to take care of myself," he said with a laugh. "But it was good to learn about everything else that was taught to us."
This wasn't a cheap venture by any stretch and Marshall said the help provided by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and the City of Yellowknife was much appreciated to help keep costs as low as possible. The Mackenzie Recreation Association also chipped in to help get some of the players from Fort Simpson, Hay River and Fort Smith to the camp.
"They got a jersey, they got accommodations, they got lunch every day," he said. "Weledeh (Catholic School) was good to let us have the gym for almost nothing."
When everything was divided up, all the players had to put down was $40, which was a rather inexpensive weekend in Yellowknife.
"It was a great discount," said Browning. "I'll take back all the skills that Graeme taught us to Fort Simpson and the fitness instructor showed us some great warm-ups we can do before a game. I'll take all that home and show my fellow teammates."