Just For The Fun Of It

We are thrilled and proud to announce that Amber Allport, a long time volunteer in the Little Gals Division, has agreed to join the league executive effective immediately. Amber has grown up around the gyms where we play, and played in the league as well. She has been a volunteer coach for several years, and has actively helped with special events. Amber has been recognized by our organization and by the Province of Ontario for her volunteer contributions and brings with her a passion for keeping the dream of Don Petersen growing in our community. Please join us in welcoming Amber to our league executive.

We were given another spot at the St. Lawrence Basketball Camp by an anonymous donor so we had an additional draw from the original camp names that were interested in attending. Doug Vivian made the draw, and our winner is Josh Bugna! He will be attending week two of the camp thanks to the generosity of our anonymous donor. To that person- thank you supporting what SLC does in the community, for believing in our players, and for believing in we do for the children in our community. You are a difference maker!

May 12 Doug Jeffries announced that he will be retiring as a broadcaster after 46 years, effective with his last broadcast on June 15. Throughout his career Doug has shown a passion for local sports unmatched anywhere. Countless hours of his own time have been spent shining a light on sports organizations, events and individual athletes that are far from what would be considered mainstream. We have been fortunate to be the recipient of that beacon that is Doug Jeffries over the years and for that as an organization we will be forever grateful.

Many of you reading this have been, or are, parts of other local organizations that have had Doug cover your event, or you and your team as an athlete.

My request is a simple one, and one I am sure will be echoed around the city in the next month. Don’t let Doug Jeffries walk away June 15th without letting him know how much he is appreciated by the sports community he cares so much about. If you have a story about your interactions with Doug that you want to share, or a comment about his impact on local sports share it here, or send it to me at roland.billings@sympatico.ca and I will compile them and get them to Doug. Share this amongst your own networks so that we spread the message as widely as we can in the sports community that Doug loves so much.

On June 15th the light that Doug shone on the dimmer corners of the local sports community will go out. We will continue to operate as before, but the electricity that sweeps through the players at a gym, rink or field when Doug walks in and sets up his camera will go out, and that will be a sad day for local sports. Help make it a little less sad for Doug. RB

We have been given one place at each of the Holy Cross Basketball Camps this summer. We are going to have a draw for the spots as we did with the St. Lawrence Camps, and here is the criteria.

1) You must be available to attend the camp date you select.

2) You must be planning on registering to be part of our program this fall.

3) You must be entering grades 3-8 in the fall.

4) Camp dates are Week 1 July 4-8; Week 2 August 15-19

5) Send the full name of the child and the grade they will be going into, as well as which week they would like to attend the camp, to roland.billings@sympatico.ca.

6) Entries must be received by noon on May 22 and the winners will be announced May 23.

Our thanks to Robin Dzierniejko and the Holy Cross coaches for making this opportunity available to our league families.

Good Luck!

We have been offered two places at the St. Lawrence College Basketball Camps this summer for our players, one for each week.

We are going to have a draw to select attendees.
This is what you need to do:
1) Confirm that you would be available to attend a camp on the dates below.

SURGE BASKETBALL CAMP WEEK #1 (Grades 3-7)
Location: SLC Kingston Gymnasium Dates: July 4th-8th 2022 Hours: 9:00AM-4:00PM
This camp is open to those who are in grades 3-7 in September 2022. This camp is designed to introduce and enhance the basic skills of basketball in a fun and challenging environment. Your camper will enjoy learning basketball skills from our Varsity Athletes and Coaches while participating in drills and scrimmages.
Camp drills begin at 9:00am, ending at 4:00pm. Pickup/drop off take place 30 minutes prior to the start and end of the camp.

SURGE BASKETBALL CAMP WEEK #2 (Grades 8-12)
Location: SLC Kingston Gymnasium Dates: July 11th-15th 2022 Hours: 9:00AM-4:00PM
Camp drills begin at 9:00am, ending at 4:00pm. Pickup/drop off take place 30 minutes prior to the start and end of the camp
This camp is open to those who are in grades 8-12 in September 2022. This camp is for athletes who want to take their game to the next level! The camp is designed to enhance athletes’ basketball skills in a fun and challenging environment. Your camper will enjoy learning different techniques, skills and conditioning from our Varsity Athletes and Coaches while participating in drills and scrimmages.

2)Commit to planning to return to our program this fall.

3) Send your name and date of birth and which week you would like to attend to roland.billings@sympatico.ca or message through Facebook. To maintain confidentiality, do not just add a comment.

Responses must be received before Noon on May 8.
We will post the draw winners on Monday May 9.

Our thanks to St. Lawrence College and coach Kevin Smart for believing in what we do.

Our thanks to everyone that participated in our first Dine and Make A Difference FOR THEM event at the Pilot House. We know that the staff and owners were very appreciative of the support from our league families.

Our next event will be at Five Guys Burgers and Fries at 770 Gardiners Road on Wednesday March 30. Five Guys has been a long time supporter of what we do so we hope that the league families that are able to will come out and support a business that has supported us. This is our chance to say thanks to them and help them come out of the pandemic on their feet.

As mentioned last week, with restrictions on in door dining being relaxed, we hoped that you would remember the businesses that have helped support us in the past. Last year we organized a series of Dine and Make a Difference FOR THEM events to support those businesses, and we have decided to do it again now to help give them a boost as we all start to feel our way out of the restrictions.
The first of these events will be Wednesday, March 9th at The Pilot House of Kingston.

Even though there is no direct benefit to us with this event, we feel it is important to support the restaurants that support us, and so many other local organizations. Whether you decide to eat in, or get take out, we hope you will take the time to say thanks in this way to the owners and staff at the Pilot House next Wednesday – or any day that you feel like having the best fish and chips in the city!
We will be posting menus and other relevant information in the next few days.

With further COVID 19 restrictions due to be removed next week, we are sure that many of you will be anxious to gradually start to get back out into the world again in person. When you do we hope that you will remember the businesses that have been supportive of us in the past, many of whom have struggled the last two years. Just as a reminder:

The Pilot House
Five Guys Burgers and Fries
East Side Mario’s at Division and Weller
TaTa’s Pizza on Princess near Frontenac
Jack Astor’s
– all hosted Dine and Make a Difference events in the past.

As well, these businesses supported our Player of the Week winners with recognition

Coffee Way (donations for Player of the Week recognition for Biddy, Girls and Graduate Divisions)
McDonald’s Family Restaurant on Division Street (donations of Player of the Week recognition for Little Guys and Little Gals Divisions)

We don’t have any fund raising events planned with these businesses yet, but let us know if you think we should do another round of “Dine and Make a Difference For Them” events to help jump start activity for their businesses, and to say thanks again as we come out of the pandemic shadow over the next couple of months.

We would like to welcome K. Mulrooney Trucking Limited to our list of local businesses that believe in and support what we do in the community. This week we received a donation from them for our program. Madison Mulrooney wrote “We certainly acknowledge what a positive outlet this is for boys and girls whom enjoy the sport of Basketball in our Community. As mentioned on the phone, a number of my immediate family members have enjoyed and partaken in being part of this organization inclusive of myself. It is because we recognize the organization is instrumental in keeping young individuals active and supporting their enjoyment of the sport of Basketball we would like to make a donation to assist in expenses. Supporting our Community is key to success. Our cheque will be going out in the mail this week to help this organization’s continued success in our community.”
Thank you for believing in us Madison. You are difference makers!

After careful consideration of all the COVID 19 factors in play in our community, we have come to the difficult decision that we will not be able to offer even an abbreviated 2021-22 season this year. We started the fall optimistic that we would be able to get players back on the court in our program before the normal end date of our season, and now we see that will simply not be possible from either a practical or logistical perspective. We share your disappointment. We want to thank those people that have made donations to the program over the last months. Those donations have helped to off set our ongoing operating costs whether we are playing or not. Our thanks to all of you for believing in what we do. We will now turn our energies to preparation for the 2022-23 season. Roland