Hi everyone,
It has been awesome to see each one of the players trying out for our club teams. Tryouts are still continuing for a few age groups which is keeping us really busy. It has been a record tryout season in terms of number of teams and number of player for club basketball.
With that in mind, we thank you for your patience in the club team selection announcements from last week's tryouts. You can expect email communication from us letting you know the status of your child's tryout in the next few days. In other words you will get an email either offering your son or daughter a position on a team or encourage you to join the spring evaluations for one of our regular spring teams.
Ken Zelez
The final schedule for Club tryouts is listed below:
Registration is open until Friday, January 20th and can be found here: https://www.rampregistrations.
Hello everyone,
Ken Zelez
- OBA President
We are excited to share the following information about Spring 2023 OBA Club Basketball. (Spring 2023 OBA Community Basketball information and evaluations will be shared in February.) There are differences between Club and Community basketball. If you want to learn more, scroll to the bottom of this page before moving on.
The information stated below is as concise as we can make it at this time and may be subject to change slightly. The bottom line is, we feel we have some excellent players with excellent coaches right here within OBA and we can offer a fantastic club basketball experience. We have been running a club basketball experience with great success over the years including introducing a club level tournament last year. Interest in Club basketball in Okotoks has been on the rise and we hope you will choose our club.
We will be offering club tryouts for every division and gender this year. That includes the levels from U11 to U18 girls and boys. The typical club season lasts from approximately late March to the first weekend in July (or longer, depending on the team). We have the infrastructure, knowhow and creativeness to offer each club team a unique, customized experience whether they want to compete in league, tournaments, travel experiences or all of the aforementioned.
Registration will include a small fee of $25.00 that will be rolled into team fees once teams are selected. Registration will open on January 9, 2023, so mark your calendars.
During the online registration process, families will be polled to what type of club experience they would like to have to help tailor the way the club season may play out in terms of competitions. For example, if it turns out that the majority of the team would like to only compete in tournaments and have an out of province experience, the OBA executive and the team's coaches will make that happen. We are including this new process to best serve our community and its families. Another example that we have heard loud and clear is that our club teams appreciate two 1.5 hour practices a week. We are going to continue to offer just that with some supplemental special practices where we will get teams together and work with each as well. We have also planned value added learning experiences as well like group training, special presentations and guest coaches.
We know that giving as much information as possible upfront is very important, so along with the information above we have already solidified a very experienced and dedicated coaching staff seen below (age divisions are the same age divisions as what has been happening in the fall/winter season):
Tryouts will be on the following dates and times at Meadow Ridge Junior High School:
These tryouts are specifically for our Club teams and are not the general evaluations for the spring Community teams. These tryouts are being held in the same fashion as last year and are held in January as the Club Teams are highly competitive and begin earlier than the Community teams. We do understand that Sunday may not work for everyone but we also have to work around all of the current community teams, school teams that are actively playing and gym availability and unfortunately Sunday is the day that works to best accommodate as many people as possible.
After tryouts, players who were successful in making their team, will be contacted and offered a spot on one of our teams. The $25.00 tryout fee will be rolled into their fees for spring club basketball. A fee of $225 will need to be paid in order to accept the spot on one of our club teams. For the players who did not make their respective teams, the $25.00 tryout fee will be rolled into their community team spring fee if they choose to play on one of our spring teams that are not at the club level. (More details to follow about spring community teams in February). There will be a short turnaround time so families are not kept in the dark.
In OBA ,we strive to keep our fees as low as possible while still offering an excellent experience. Club fees will vary per team due to the customized team schedules. A base fee of $850 should be expected. That means the remaining $600 will need to be paid before the first practice.
Traditional Club Spring Basketball | Traditional Community Spring Basketball |
| Runs from approx mid March to July 1 weekend or later | Runs from approx mid March to June 30 |
| Traditionally high cost including SWAG | Traditionally low cost with no SWAG |
| Perceived higher level of competition | Perceived lower level of competition |
| Playing time decided by team/club philosophy | Somewhat equal playing time |
| Coaches are mostly paid | Volunteer coaches |
| Practice 2-4/week at over 1.5 hours/week | Practice 1-2/week at 1 hour/week |
| Travel involved | Local competition |
| League, tournaments or both | League play |
| Open borders of player eligibility | Open borders of player eligibility |
| Age level restrictions | Age level restrictions |
OBA Club Spring Basketball | OBA Community Spring Basketball |
| Runs from approx mid March to July 1 weekend or later (depending on team) | Runs from approx mid March to June 30 |
| Mid cost - higher than community fees, but much lower than traditional club fees, lots of SWAG and extras | Low cost - should be very similar to regular season, optional SWAG |
| Perceived higher level of competition | Perceived lower level of competition |
| Playing time decided by team/club philosophy | Somewhat equal playing time |
| Volunteer coaches | Volunteer coaches |
| Club activities | Team activities |
| Travel involved depending on tournament play | Local competition |
| Practice 2-3/week at 1.5 hours/week | Practice 2/week at 1 hour/week |
| League, tournaments or both - depending on individual teams and coaches | League play |
| Open borders of player eligibility | Open borders of player eligibility |
| Age level restrictions | Age level restrictions |
Hello and Happy New Year!
We hope this message finds you and your family well.
We are excited to share the following information about spring 2023 OBA Club Basketball. The information stated below is as concise as we can make it at this time and may be subject to change slightly. The bottom line is, we feel we have some excellent players with excellent coaches right here within OBA and we can offer a fantastic club basketball experience. We have been running a club basketball experience with great success over the years including introducing a club level tournament last year.
Tryouts will be on the following dates and times at Meadow Ridge Junior High School:
We will sending out much more specific details in a day or two, so stay tuned in. Detailed information will be included.
- Ken Zelez
OBA President
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Thank you all for your patience as we have worked through arranging the Evaluations for the Fall/Winter season.
We are looking at the highest registration numbers OBA has ever seen with over 300 players registered from U11 to U18!! This is amazing and we are excited to get everyone in a gym over the next two weeks!
The schedule below shows when each age group will evaluate. All of our Girls groups will have 1 evaluation and the Boys groups will have 2 evaluations. This is based on the number of players registered in each group. The first evaluations for all Boys groups are based on your last name so please pay close attention to which session you should be attending.
During evaluations we are asking everyone to access the gym from the North parking lot. There is a door with direct access to the gym and this is where we will be setup for player check-in. Please do not try to access the school from any other door.
Once again, thank you all for your patience and understanding as we get things organized for another great season of basketball in Okotoks.
If you have any questions about evaluations please let us know. You can reply to this email with questions.
We are looking forward to seeing all of you very soon,
- OBA Executive
The season will start with evaluations in mid-September with specific dates and times to be announced in early September. Evaluations will be held for each age level to ensure players are placed on teams with players of similar skill. Upon completion of evaluations, teams will be formed and begin practices at the end of September. Each team will practice twice weekly in Okotoks on either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday evenings. Practice details will be announced once teams are formed.
League games will be played each Saturday in Calgary beginning the week after Thanksgiving.
We will also be offering a Tykes program for the fall/winter for ages 6-8. The Tykes program consists of a weekly session that includes skill work and game play in a fun exciting environment. There will be 8 sessions prior to Christmas and 8 sessions in the new year. The registration for Tykes is now open!!
If you have any questions please reach out to info@okotoksbasketball.ca.
We are looking forward to another great season of basketball!
OBA Executive
