Hoop dreams took flight two decades ago in Okotoks.
And it’s been on an upward trajectory ever since with the Okotoks Basketball Association ringing in its 20th anniversary season in 2023-24 boasting unprecedented registration numbers.
“The organization is as strong as it’s ever been,” said Blake Husky, president of the Okotoks Basketball Association. “And with our growth we’re trying to continue to develop and offer as strong of a program as we can. We have great people in place with our board members to help drive that success and we have fantastic coaches that volunteer with us, be it parents, former players or people that just want to be involved in basketball.
“The community that has developed through Okotoks Basketball is very strong at the moment and, in my opinion, creating such a great culture within the town for basketball. It’s a sport people get involved with at a young age and turns into a lifelong sport.”
Husky has been involved with the association dating back to 2004, shortly after moving to the community, in a variety of roles from coaching and logistics, to joining the board of directors and now stepping into the president’s seat this season.
“When I came onto the board, we had 11 teams and as of this fall, we have 33,” Husky said. “When I first started coaching, there was just a handful of teams at the time, it was a much smaller organization and we just tried to have a spot for everybody to play.
“There certainly wasn’t the number of kids or families looking to play at that time and the organization has grown, the interest in basketball has gotten bigger and the community itself, as far as basketball goes, has become stronger and bigger as a result.”
Husky said the oldest age group, the U18 division, is in a three-year growth cycle where kids are nurturing that love of the sport and want to continue to do so.
In addition to the 340 registered for the fall programming in the U11-U18 groups, there are 50 registered in the tykes program.
“Certainly, there was a couple of rough seasons with (the pandemic) and coming out of that,” he said. “But coming out of that, we’ve just seen growth.
“This year is our biggest year to date, last year was our biggest ever up to that point, the year before that (too) and it just continues.”
The OBA runs its fall/winter and spring leagues in the CMBA along with spring club ball, summer camps, clinics and its academy. Each year, the OBA also runs the Alisa Suykens Memorial Tournament in the spring.
“We’ve been more or less year-round for about five years at this point,” Husky said. “We try to reach everybody at some point throughout the year.”
The OBA was born out of a lack of local options for families looking to get into community basketball without having to go into the city, said Mark Hogan, the association’s first president.
“When my kids became of age to play basketball we were living out in Okotoks and there was no community program,” he said. “And we struggled to find a right fit even in Calgary, and they preferred that you live in Calgary.”
Hogan, who had existing connections with youth basketball programs, sought to do something to fill that void and have local teams to play in the Calgary Minor Basketball Association.
“I used to run a program called Stars Basketball so we had a lot of young kids that were already playing basketball, so when the kids got older they outgrew that program,” he said. “Once we started letting everyone know there was a community association, folks just jumped onboard right away, there was word of mouth, some advertising and marketing and we had substantial growth right out of the gate.”
Hogan stayed on as president for a couple of years, left for a short time, and re-joined the executive again for a second term.
“My kids were done and I’m a firm believer that parents who have kids in the program, they should be involved in the program,” he said. “I stepped in to get it back on track and then parents again have taken over the last 10 years or so.
“Ken Zelez was running it for quite a while, Blake is great, Ken is great and they’ve done a really good job of running community basketball. I think it’s in great shape.”
He continues to be very active in the basketball community, including coach education, and runs the OBA Academy.
“It’s a skill development program, usually every second Friday evening, and we do it here at Meadow Ridge,” he said. “We do eight per season.
“It’s open to any age group and it’s for anyone, just come out and play.”
Hogan said the growth in youth basketball is due in part to the success of the Toronto Raptors in growing the game north of the 49th parallel.
“I think they’ve made a tremendous difference in Canada,” he said. “Last year, we had 22 Canadians playing in the NBA on opening day, that’s the highest we’ve ever had and we’re the second highest country, behind the U.S., with the number of players in the NBA.
“And that started with the Raptors.”
Closer to home, the growth has been incremental with many helping hands in the dedicated basketball community.
“I’m really proud of the organization and what it’s become over the years,” Husky said. “With all of the involvement from people that have had a hand in this over the number of years.
“Twenty years as an organization is a really big deal and it’s not without the efforts of those that came before us to put these things together and put the building blocks in place.”
For more on the OBA, visit okotoksbasketball.ca.
