The Edwin Parr Composite gymnasium was filled with the sound squeaking shoes and the thud of basketballs being pounded into the hardwood April 23 as the Athabasca Pacers club basketball team went through an afternoon practice.
The team is Athabasca’s first boy’s club team, and coach Natasha Gillman-Oltmanns hopes it will be the start of a strong program for aspiring young hoops players to sharpen their skills.
“It’s so important to build the fundamentals at an early age,” Gillman-Oltmanns said. “If you don’t teach the correct techniques and understanding at an early age, it becomes more and more difficult to teach.”
The team is made up of 13 players from grades 6-9. Most of the players do not have an opportunity to play organized basketball once the school team’s season is over, so they welcome the opportunity to be a part of a team in the offseason.
“I love it, it’s amazing,” said Reese Hunter, one of the players on the team. “It’s almost better than regular high school basketball.”
Gillman-Oltmanns - who will be coaching the team alongside her husband Duane Oltmanns - started the practice with a series of drills and exercises to get the players warmed up before splitting the team into groups to work on fundamentals offensive concepts such as correct spacing, passing and moving without the ball. Every few minutes she would stop the players to point out little details they may have missed or things she wanted to see improved.
Gillman-Oltmanns said the players were eager to learn and responsive to her feedback.
“They’re picking it up really quickly,” she said. “The nice difference between high school and club is that they really want to be here and they really want to learn. And there’s such an age range that the little guys almost feel compelled to work harder.”
Following the offensive drill, Gillman-Oltmanns worked with the players on their defensive spacing, hand-positioning and timing as well as a clever drill that combined dodgeball and dribbling a basketball. Gillman-Oltmanns said the point of the drill was to encourage the players to keep their eyes up when they were playing.
While the players were practicing, there were several parents on the sidelines watching their sons learn. Carmen Jensen-Tebb’s son Niklas is a Grade 9 student on the team. Tebb said her son was really excited about the opportunity to play more games after the regular season was finished.
“We’re really pleased that she stepped up and is coaching,” Tebb said. “We’re excited for the boys to have some extra time and focus, the girls program is being well looked after so it’s just giving the guys some extra support.”
The team will play league games in the Town of Onoway on Saturdays over the next few weeks. Gillman-Oltmanns said game reps and practice is the most important step in developing players who will be able to compete at the highest level in the future.
“If we want to actually start winning championships or getting to zones at the high school level we have to have a program that start way earlier,” she said.
