In the past six years, basketball has been consistently gaining popularity within the community with more teams being added each year. The current season, which runs from October – March currently has 16 local teams, which is approximately three additional teams from the previous season.
A basketball tournament was held at the Martensville Athletic Pavilion on January 6th and 7th, with teams from Martensville and Warman participating. “The intent behind the tournament was to try to give a few of our basketball teams an opportunity to play a few more games. There aren’t a lot of basketball tournaments throughout the season, so we thought why not try to hold one and see how it goes,” City of Martensville Recreation Program Supervisor, Angela Reddekopp explained.
Reddekopp along with some of the local coaches came together to organize the event that included three teams from Martensville and two teams from Warman. Thanks to contributions from local businesses, there was a raffle table with an assortment of prizes available and all players in the tournament received individual pizzas from Boston Pizza and coupons from Red Swan Pizza.
“With this being the first time we did a tournament, we didn’t want to go too big right from the start. It wasn’t your typical tournament format where you have one winner, it was more about giving them an opportunity to play some additional games and a way to start something that we can continue to grow in the future. I hope that we can do something similar next year and possibly expand to different divisions or even the same division with more teams included,” Reddekopp added.
Approximately six years ago, the City of Martensville began offering a Mini-Dunkers Basketball program that focused on providing basic skills to kids in kindergarten to grade two. From there, players register with Saskatoon Minor Basketball and sign up as a resident of Martensville. Teams are then created from youth in Martensville and surrounding areas with practices taking place between Martensville and Warman and games each Saturday in Saskatoon.
Currently Reddekopp is organizing the basketball programming for Martensville teams; however, as interest in the sport grows within the community, she hopes to see a community service group come together to coordinate the program.
“It is a growing sport in the community and there seems to be a lot of interest, so if there is anyone looking to get involved and be a part of the basketball community, reach out to me and I can help them get something going,” Reddekopp said.
For more information, or if you are interested in organizing a committee to operate the basketball program out of Martensville, contact Angela Reddekopp at areddekopp@martensville.ca or (306) 683-5576.
BELOW: Drew Reddekopp in white of the Martensville Thunder taking the ball down against the Warman Wizards. (Shanine Sealey/MM)
