Canada Basketball and Steve Nash Announce National Youth Development Program

[By Ryan McNeill] - While searching through press releases on Canada Basketball's website I was stoked to see that Steve Nash has reached an agreement to start a new youth development program. Nash's program started in British Columbia and the Steve Nash Youth Basketball League now has more than 8,000 players (with over 1,000 volunteer coaches, 150 referees, and 1000 administrative volunteers) on 850 teams throughout British Columbia. Because the success this program has had within British Columbia coupled with Nash's cult status across Canada it was a no brainer for Canada Basketball to affiliate with his youth development program.

Canada has long been known as a country that loves hockey, and while it still does, children across Canada are falling in love with basketball and the problem they are encountering is that there aren't enough adults that are knowledgeable about the sport to teach talented kids the finer aspects to the game. A big reason why I'm a fan of Nash's program is because it provides coaches with a manual, clinics, membership in BCBOA, access to Basketball Canada's resource library, access to Basketball BC's resource personnel and registration provides your players with a chance to participate in Junior NBA/WNBA programs including certificates, coaches, players and parents guides. I believe that a lack of knowledge by youth coaches is what's preventing Canada from being a force at FIBA competitions so it's great to see that Basketball Canada is doing all that they can so that coaches, and in turn children, learn all of the nuances involved with the game of basketball.

I'll admit that I've often ripped on Nash for not taking part in Olympic Qualifiers or World Championships but I'll settle for him helping out with creating a national youth development program. While earning some medals for Canada at competitions would be ideal I have to give Nash credit for doing his part to help advance basketball across Canada by implementing a program that will help coaches and players.

You can watch a video clip of Steve Nash talking about this program by clicking here .