Just For The Fun Of It

This year we will be having players evaluated by their registration number as shown below. For those that were at registration Saturday you would have been given a copy of the schedule with the practice you were to attend hilited. For those in Little Gals that have signed up since yesterday, you were all given yur practice time in the correspondence. ALL EVALUATION PRACTICES WILL BE AT ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE GRADUATE DIVISION WHO WILL PRACTICE AT ECOLE CATHEDRALE ON MONDAY. 

Pete Petersen Basketball League
Player Evaluation Schedule
2023-2024

Monday September 11  6:00-6:45 Registration Numbers 1-24
Biddy Division  6:45-7:30 Registration Numbers 25-48
7:30-8:15 Registration Numbers 49-72
8:15-9:00 Registration Numbers 73-96

Monday September 11  6:00-6:45 Registration Numbers 1-30
Graduate Division  6:45-7:30 Registration Numbers 31-60
At Ecole Cathedrale 7:30-8:15 Registration Numbers 61-90

Tuesday September 12  6:00-6:45 Registration Numbers 1-24
Little Guys Division 6:45-7:30 Registration Numbers 25-48
7:30-8:15 Registration Numbers 49-72
8:15-9:00 Registration Numbers 73-96

Wednesday September 13 6:00-6:45 Registration Numbers 1-24
Girls Division  6:45-7:30 Registration Numbers 25-48
7:30-8:15 Registration Numbers 49-72
8:15-9:00 Registration Numbers 73-96

Thursday September 14 6:00-6:45 Registration Numbers 1-24
Little Gals Division  6:45-7:30 Registration Numbers 25-48
7:30-8:15 Registration Numbers 49-72
8:15-9:00 Registration Numbers 73-96

As of Sunday September 10 at 9 pm all divisions are full. We are still taking names for the Little Gals Division waiting list (girls 8-10) so if you are interested please send a message through our Facebook page so the order of placement can be maintained. For all other divisions our teams and waiting lists are full so we are taking no more names for this season.

Oye thanks to all of the volunteers that made registration run so well .and our thanks to the parents and families that maintained order and humanity throughout the waiting and registration process.

It’s official!! Wednesday October 18 will be our first fund raising event of the season as Five Guys Burgers and Fries on Gardiners Road host our league families and friends. From 5 -8:30 pm $1 from every burger, poutine and milkshake sold will come back to the Pete Petersen Basketball League. Mark your calendars, tell your friends, neighbours and workmates and make your plans. Even though we have games that night, the hours will make it possible for everyone to make a difference. This deal for us will apply to eat in and take out orders.

On Friday Evening John McDougall and his wife Helen made a VERY significant donation to the league. John has been my best friend since high school and he and Helen made the donation to celebrate a milestone event. John is also a former player for the Mustangs in the mid 1960’s and even had his in game heroics immortalized in the pages of the Whig Standard. We want to thank John and Helen for believing in what we do for the children in the community. They have made a big difference in the lives of our players and their families. RB

Registration for the 2023 – 24 season of the Pete Petersen Basketball League is next weekend! Saturday September 9 at St. Francis of Assisi from 9-10:30 am we will opening the doors for in person registration. There is no on line or pre-registration and it will be first come first served as has been our tradition. The cost for our planned 18 game season will still be $10. Here is the age breakdown by division, and remember THE AGES ARE THE AGE THE PLAYER WILL BE ON APRIL 1, 2024.

Little Guys – boys 8-10 and they play on Tuesday evenings
Little Gals – girls 8-10 and they play on Thursday evening
Biddy – boys 11-12 and they play on Monday evenings
Girls – girls 11-14 and they play on Wednesday evenings
Graduate – boys 13-15 and they play Monday evenings at École Cathedrale

Here is a map showing the entrance that we will be using for registration. It will be clearly marked next week and other signs will be in place to help direct you.

Yesterday we received a VERY generous donation from Mark Potter for the league in memory of Pete Petersen and to recognize the work done by the league volunteers to keep Pete’s dream alive by “giving children a safe place to learn life lessons and and having fun playing basketball.”

Thank you Mark for believing in what we do, and for honouring Pete in this way. You continue to be a true difference maker in so many areas of our community.

After many years serving on the league executive, Paul Medeiros has decided to resign from our board. We are very happy that Paul wants to continue to be a volunteer with the league as a coach and co-convenor of the Biddy Division, as well as helping us with special events as he has done in the past. On behalf of everyone involved with the league, I want to thank Paul for his commitment to helping organize the league he played in as a youth, and for his continued commitment to making a difference in the lives of the children in our community.

Matthew Vierimaa, a former coach in our league and now at Acadia University is looking for some help for a Graduate Student working with him. Here is his message to you.

“I currently have an Honours student (Juliana LeBlanc) that is conducting a study on female coaches that volunteer with sports that they previously took part in as young athletes. Given the league’s tradition for having former players return as coaches/volunteers, I thought that some of your current coaches could be a great fit. I was hoping that you might consider sharing the recruitment info with some of your coaches that meet the study’s selection criteria.

Juliana is recruiting female volunteer coaches (aged 18+) that currently coach a sport that they previously took part in as a youth athlete. Involvement in the study would include participation in a 45 min. virtual interview about one’s coaching and youth sport experiences. All participants also have the opportunity to win 1 of 3 $50 gift cards.

If anyone is interested learning more about the study and/or is interested in participating, they can contact Juliana LeBlanc at 160050l@ACADIAU.CA. I have included a recruitment poster below.”
Please share this opportunity with other female coaches you may know from other sports leagues around town, so that we can help out Matthew and Juliana.

All players and families need to know that any piercings done from now until the end of February 2024 will have a negative impact on your ability to participate in our program or ANY basketball program. Conventional wisdom is that new piercings must be left in place for 6-8 weeks to avoid the risk of infection. Taping over the new piercing is not permitted. You simply will not be able to participate until the piercing can safely be removed.

This is a rule of basketball, not a Pete Petersen Basketball League rule. R

With only 55 sleeps before Registration Day 2023 – Saturday September 9 2023 – we thought it would be appropriate to publish our answers to frequently asked questions about registration. Please contact us if there are questions you have that may not be answered here. Please note that all ages referenced are the age that the child will be on April 1, 2024.

1) What are the game nights for the upcoming season? Answer: Monday Nights – Biddy Division (boys 11-12) at St. Francis of Assisi; Graduate Division (boys 13-15) at Ecole Cathedrale; Tuesday Nights- Little Guys Division (boys 8-10) at St. Francis of Assisi; Wednesday Nights – Girls Division (Girls 11-14) at St. Francis of Assisi; Thursday Nights- Little Gals Division ( girls 8-10)at St. Francis of Assisi. Graduate games start at 6:00 pm (3 games a night in one hour time slots), and all other divisions start at 6 pm with four games in 45 minute time slots.
2) I am going to be out of town on September 9 and you have no on line registration. How do I get my child registered?
Answer: If you are going to be away September 9 you can get someone else to start the registration process for you. They will need the name, date of birth, contact phone numbers, address and e mail address (if applicable) for your player, along with the $10 registration fee. They will be given a copy of the registration form that you will need to sign and bring with you to the player evaluation night. We must have a signed registration form before your child can participate in league activities. PLEASE DO NOT ASK MEMBERS OF OUR LEAGUE EXECUTIVE TO REGISTER YOUR CHILD FOR YOU. We are very busy on registration day looking after other details of the process.
2 a) Why don’t you have on line registration like other leagues? Answer: Having in person, first come, first served registration equalizes the opportunity for everyone in the community. We allow someone else to register your child as long as you make those arrangements as a concession to those that may need to be unavailable at registration time due to work or other commitments.
3) Can we request to be on the same team as another player?
Answer: Due to the large number of requests we receive each year, and our growing number of registrations, we can no longer assure you that player pairing requests will be granted, with the exception of siblings in the same age group, and where a DEFINITE need to ride together has been established and communicated. It has been overwhelming for our volunteers to accommodate these large number of requests while trying to build fair and balanced teams. We believe that this approach keeps us in line with the practice of most other youth organizations. We see our program as a great opportunity for family members and players to meet new friends and neighbours from across our community, establishing friendships that may last for years to come.
4) Can we request to be on a specific coach’s team?
Answer: No, you may not request a coach. The only exception to this rule is if you are an assistant for that coach.
5) What happens if I miss the player evaluation night? Will my child be “cut” from the program?
Answer: While we hope that all players come out for evaluation night, no one that is registered will be “cut”. All will be placed on a team, and you will be notified what team and the team practice time in the days following our September 20 coaches meeting.
6) What do I do if I find out that my child has a conflict with another activity or decides they don’t want to play this season?
Answer: Please notify us as soon as possible by e mail (roland.billings@sympatico.ca), by phone (613 548-8790), through the web site or Facebook page. We will likely have a waiting list in each division of players that want to play, and a decision on your part will get one of them into the league.
7) How often will there be practices and what time of day will they be held?
In each division there will be one evaluation night practice in the week after registration following the schedule distributed at registration and that will be published here after registration day. In the week after the coaches meeting (September 25-28) there will be one practice with your team on the same game nights and time slots outlined in question one above.