By Jason Pike
Youth sports thrive on volunteers, that is no big secret, and in a lot of situations there wouldn’t be functioning organizations and teams without said volunteers. A lot of the times it consists of parents of children involved, or family members of those involved, that’s just a given and it is where organizations are able to draw from, but at what point do they or should they move on?
I’m all about the Goodwill of volunteering and sticking around but when they stay running organizations for more than a decade after their kids have grown and moved on, I start to question motives. Of course sometimes it’s just genuinely wanting to grow the sport or keep things running, but unfortunately, more times than not from my own experience, it’s been a hindrance to the sport and organizations.
It all starts good and well intentioned, but once some members get in a position of power it’s not easily relinquished. Without naming names, I have witnessed organizations that have had executive in power for 20 years, who should have long stepped away from the position, often shoving aside new and motivated members and parents who want to step into roles to be involved in organization that their children are involved.
For instance two summers ago I witnessed a baseball organization step in front of coaches at all star tryouts and select teams themselves. Not the coaches of the teams!
No, the all-star teams coaches had no direct input on who would be selected for AAA, AA or single a baseball and a lot of parents were left shaking their heads as to how a coach cannot even have input on their team. They didn’t understand why but the reasons became very visibly clear when rosters were posted.
Let’s just say that players who should have been there were not and some players who shouldn’t have been were. Many that should have been on the All Star rosters weren’t even looked at because they weren’t a part of “the boys club” and they weren’t familiar names . They weren’t looked at for their ability and if I’m being honest I think that’s why female baseball has thrived because it lacks that politics that surrounds the boys.
Old boys Club
Through that summer it was more evident than ever that the choices that were made for All Star selections were less than above board and as the season went on comments were heard around games and tournaments about some thriving league players, and they had questions. Like why they weren’t on the all-star teams and nobody wanted to answer the question because some of the players in the league were superior to those on the All-Star team and they had tried out for the All-Star team but because they weren’t in the favour of certain long-term executive they got pushed to the side.
Same has been true for the Newfoundland soccer association for example, they had the same president for 20 plus years and on multiple occasions when said president was asked about certain decisions that were made, they were pushed aside when it would benefit the organization and the province as a whole. He was quoted saying well that’s the way we’ve always done it!
Well, just because that’s the way it was always done it doesn’t mean it was the right way to do it. Ultimately it led to Newfoundland being the last Province to come on board with Canada Soccer governance. The rest of the country had been on board for years but the NLSA had been stuck in the past for so long that Canada Soccer finally gave them no other option but to conform.
In telling you this, it’s just the precursor of me trying to get to my point, which is the Newfoundland Basketball Association. There has been some movement in the executive over the last several years but at this point the damage is already been done. Twenty plus years of bad decision making has led us to severe lack of development of basketball, not just in the Metro St John’s area but in the province as a whole.
Club basketball barely exists outside of the Avalon Peninsula anymore. A little still exists in Grand Falls and Corner Brook but at times, there seems to be a lot of unsurety as to how stable the future is for club basketball on the western and central regions of the province. The Burin peninsula has not been present in many many years but now thanks to the efforts of Marc Pittman, things are seemingly on the upswing in an in an attempt to restore basketball prominence in that region. But even last year, former technical director Doug Partridge threw roadblock after financial roadblock preventing the Burin Peninsula from competing in the Newfoundland Labrador Winter Games.
You would think a technical director would be trying to open the door financially and write off any financial obligation for organizations trying to develop the game and get back involved, instead of putting up wall after wall and making it more about financial gain then the sport itself.
After being fired from the head coach position of the Memorial University Seahawks Women’s Basketball team, noted for numerous reasons, mainly because his failure to achieve anything more than a minimal success rate in the AUS and the common knowledge of him being known to become physically aggressive with his players was no secret to the General Public. It was no strange sight to see him physically grab one of his female players if he felt they weren’t listening to him or he was trying to make a point.
As a father of an athlete. not a female athlete. but to have a child playing sports all I know as a father if I witnessed a coach physically handle my child it would not end well.
So my question is to the fathers of these young girls who he laid hands on how can you let that occur and continue. All of which, multiple times was swept under the rug.
Upon being ousted from that position, he took over a multi-year tenure as technical director of the Newfoundland Labrador Basketball Association. The bigger question begs is how do you go from being let go from one position and being known very well for poor behaviour get hired for the province’s technical director in that sport?
I really don’t care how great your knowledge of a sport may be but if you treat people this way it disqualifies you be in charge of said people.
Let’s just say development was on his mind. Outside of the St John’s region, little or nothing was done to develop the game. Fact of the matter was Doug Partridge didn’t drive for it and had no aspirations of leaving the Metro region let alone go to outport Newfoundland trying to inspire basketball development in our youth.
He did no camps, no talks, nothing. So basketball outside of the St John’s region became stagnant. In The Last 5 Years alone the only real basketball development in this province at all was courtesy of Carl English and his CE23 Academy, who put off multiple camps through various regions of the island in an attempt to draw new blood flow into the game. Develop that which was already existing and ultimately it led to players travelling hours every week across the province to play at the Ce23 Academy, because it was run better and performed better than the provincial program itself and at the end of the day offered more opportunity.
The NLBA
As positive as this might be it has not always led to cohesiveness between CE23 Academy and the NLBA. It’s almost like the NLBA felt like they had dirt kicked in their face. No one likes hearing about their indiscretions being exposed, let alone by a private club who shows them up. Any attempts to improve the game and the leagues around this city have been met with less than favourable responses and push back from the NLBA. Subtle threats of being left out of provincial tournaments and any other provincial programs, or referee availability have often been veiled when suggestions or attempts were made to form leagues that were not necessarily run by the NLBA exclusively. Though they’ve never come out and directly said it, actions and suggestions have dictated otherwise.
And last season the Club League took a turn for the worst when promises of a much smoother process were put forward, in the form of what would be now called the provincial Club League, ultimately eliminating provincial championships in lieu of a provincial League playoff bracket, but suffice to say, the league was an ultimate disaster.
One of the biggest problems that existed was that the NLBA did not want to host games outside of the Powerplex. Which ultimately led to huge gaps in League play, For some teams they sat the entire month of November without any game and for other teams there were barely any games at all. It was a complete and utter mess and all in the name of financial greed because the real motivation here was keep all games at the Powerplex and creating maximum profits for rental times. That meant shoving basketball in between whatever times were available after volleyball, soccer track and field etc.
There are a hundred gyms in this region that could be used for League games. Trust me when I say these kids do not care what gymnasium they play in, they just want to play. But with too many of the wrong people, in the wrong positions, with the wrong intentions, for way too long, decisions get made for all the wrong reasons.
Too little too late
And now technical director Doug Partridge has retired and left the province, but things really aren’t looking any more promising. At least not for the league anyway.
A new technical director is in place and it’s questionable what her abilities are because so far everything’s looking really more behind than past years and so far the general consensus from a lot of people, is one of nervousness at the minimum.
None of this has been made clearer than this summer’s Newfoundland team performances at Nationals, which was at best.. lacking. Our under 15 boys lost to a team from the Northwest Territories handily, a team for which this was their first victory in 25 years. The Northwest Territories first victory in 25 years was over team Newfoundland.
At this point do we not need to step back and take a long hard look at the way the process is done? Are we not able to see now that the proof is right there in front of us, that the NLBA has done little or nothing to develop these kids properly. For one, holding provincial team tryouts during Easter to prepare for tournaments in June or July will not cut it! At best, these tryouts need to take place over the Christmas holiday break because those extra few months will be crucial. And now leading up to us hosting the 2025 Canada games it really needs a long hard look in the mirror at itself, but the real question is is it too little too late for that? Is the damage already gone too far? We are literally 7 months give or take, from hosting teams from every other province and Territories in this country and our programs make me wonder if we’re really up to Snuff. I guess we will find out soon enough,
But let’s step back a few levels and take a little in depth look at the NLBA and the handling of club and school ball. Aside from putting there names on things and collecting fees, what have they really done for clubs and teams? Well let me tell you what they did this year. They doubled registration fees for kids, that’s what. Oh but they didn’t just stop there, no they also have made it so parents have to register there kids individually. And you may ask what the problem with this is? Well in past years Club teams and school teams would pay the registration on behalf of the team members, now it has to be done individually, which ultimately isolates people in the lower income bracket, who can’t necessarily afford it at the time, so what would end up being done is that clubs and school teams were able to spread the cost out over the whole team which end up maybe being a dollar more or two sometimes but in this way it allowed parents to save a little dignity and not having to outright say that they can’t afford it.
Now if a family is unable to pay said fee they have to openly and publicly say as much if they need help or donations to make this happen and I’m not saying there’s any shame in asking for help, I myself have been in situations like this off and on over time, but take it from someone who knows.
Whether it’s right or wrong it is humiliating.
Most of these changes are all about money and nothing else. Even the new format for a Provincial Championship in the club stream has changed dramatically and it’s not to the benefit of the players and teams competing. They’ve eliminated provincials as a whole as I mentioned earlier and replaced it with the league and playoffs but this is only done because the NLBA doesn’t want to deal with provincials tournaments.
In past years they’ve ruined teams seasons by making it a one and done situation. So if you have one bad game and you lose, your provincial championship dreams are over. All of this in an attempt just to rush through the tournament and get it over and done with. So what’s the point really? All these teams work their asses off all year only to be screwed over by politics at the end of the season.
Volleyball sets the example
The NLBA needs to take a page out of the of the Newfoundland and Labrador Volleyball Associations book. It have recognized the players efforts and the time spent and not only do they not rush through their provincials, they have developed a multi-tiered system that works well for everybody as you move through the play down bracket.
If you lose the game you might be out of the running for a tier one championship but you still could end up being in a tier two, three or four finals and in some situation you could end up in a provincial a tier one funnel or tier 2 final and they’re still be provincial B tier one and tier 2 and so on.
This is brilliant in the way that it recognizes that there are a lot of good players out there and a way to try to keep them involved as much and as long as they possibly can. It caters to all levels of competition instead of just rushing through it to get it done. and let’s be honest if you feel the need that you have to rush through an event maybe it’s time you step away from that organization because it’s not built for you, it’s built for the people that participate in it.
More and more regularly I hear complaints about the NLBA more so than most other sports organizations. Most people really dislike participating in official NLBA events because they are considered no fun to participate in and I mean when that aspect is removed whats the point is anymore. It’s becoming more blatantly obvious that independently and private run tournaments are often the better ones and most successful ones, so realistically that sheds a whole other kind of light on where the problems really are with the Newfoundland Basketball Association.
Another issue is that most people think that if they are hosting games and tournaments they have to conform to the NLBA and its way of thinking. That’s not the case at all. If you want to hold games or hold tournaments you are free to do so. You do not have to inform the NLBA or consult them on anything at all, even though that’s what they would like the general public to believe. Go ahead and host your games and host your tournaments, you don’t have to ask permission. Truth be told the less you include them, the more successful your event is likely to be.
They like to hold their foot over the throat of everyone is involved in the sport of basketball because they think they own it but that is very far from accurate. If you look to any other province whether it be Nova Scotia or Ontario or Edmonton for example most of their leads aren’t run by the provinces governing body there’s lots of private leads.
I don’t know why that seems to be such a problem here? Is it our old way of thinking? Is it an authority thing? Because that really doesn’t fly anymore. The only cure for old ways of of thinking is the replace it with people with new ways of thinking.
