Canada Basketball's National Elite Development Academy

[by Ryan McNeill] - I was encouraged about the state of Canada Basketball after reading an article Lori Ewing wrote for the Canadian Press about the new National Elite Development Academy that recently opened in Hamilton, Ontario. The premise of the program is to get the country's top teenage girls (ranging in age from 16-18) living in Hamilton so that they can practice twice a day while receiving instruction from the top coaches that Canada has to offer.

Ewing wrote in her article that:

The program finally tipped off this past September after two years of planning. Canada Basketball has since secured funding to start a boys' program in Hamilton next September, under head coach Greg Francis.

The young women, who come from as far away as North Vancouver and Moncton, N.B., are billeted with Hamilton residents and attend one of three high schools in the area.

A typical day goes much like this: out of bed at 6 a.m., practise at McMaster at 7 a.m., classes starting at 10 a.m., back at McMaster for 3:30 p.m. afternoon practice, usually involving weights, medicine ball, and watching game film.

Ewing added later in the article that:

Sport Canada, a federal government agency, provides the majority of the $350,000 it's costing to run this year's program.

NEDA covers the players' room and board and travel expenses. They have access to physiotherapy and medical care at McMaster and the City of Hamilton has given them bus passes to get around the city.

The players attend weekly study sessions and assistant coach Tyler Slipp keeps close tabs on the players' grades and exam schedules.

Personally, I think it's about time that Canada jumped on board and joined other countries such as Russia, Australia, Brazil, Cuba, Spain and France who all have centralized national programs. I think this provides our countries top young players an excellent opportunity to get used to playing together while receiving instruction from the coaches for the National team and the top coaches available here in Canada.

Another aspect of this article that I liked is that Canada was able to organize a Development Academy before the United States. I was searching around online for articles about what the United States is working on starting up a basketball academy and from what I read in Michael Lee's article in the Washinton Post from earlier this month it appears that the States are still awhile away from opening the doors to a National Basketball Academy of their own.

In Lee's article called "Teaching Their Children Well" he wrote:

The U.S. approach has numerous fissures, as documented in a year-long series of stories by The Washington Post. Shoe company-sponsored AAU teams, which play with little regard for fundamentals under coaches who work with little or no oversight, dominate youth basketball. The series also found that academic integrity, the foundation of the NCAA system, has been damaged by prep schools that grant eligibility through questionable academic programs.

In foreign countries, completely different approaches are used. And while there still are concerns about aspects of player development systems that resemble trade schools more than colleges or high schools, there is little doubt that players for the most part are drilled in fundamentals by coaches who are well trained and, in some countries, accredited.

In Europe, professional teams oversee most of the best young players, who sign contracts at an early age. Italian power Benetton Treviso has about 600 players, some non-pros as young as 8, in its junior program. The French system that produced Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs puts its young players in the National Institute of Sport and Physical Education, a government-run training center in Paris that teaches basketball and also offers a school curriculum.

A tour of facilities last month in Russia, Serbia and Lithuania, whose teams have defeated the United States in international play, found a mixture of approaches. In Russia, players can either sign with pro teams and join their junior programs or go to basketball schools. Serbian youngsters are most likely to be signed and trained by pro teams, and young Lithuanians have a choice of basketball schools, including two run by former NBA stars.

Regardless of the system, the results are undeniable: After the embarrassment of finishing sixth in the 2002 world championships, a recommitted U.S. team could finish no better than third in the Olympics in 2004 and third in the world championships in September. And NBA teams have taken notice: There are a record 83 international players, almost 20 percent of the league, this season.

High-ranking officials from U.S. high schools, the AAU, the NCAA, the NBA and shoe companies are studying ways to improve the American development system because, as NBA Commissioner David Stern put it, "the rest of the world is trying to eat our lunch."

While I understand the benefits of AAU ball and prep schools, I can't help but think that they are now becoming nothing more than clutter and speed bumps that are preventing the United States from returning to prominence as an international powerhouse. I believe that if the States was able to collect all the top teenage basketball players in the country and provide them with instruction from the top high school and college coaches in the country that it would strengthen these players. Plus, the chance for high school players to play against college teams and international teams would be a huge perk to these high school players and would be enough motivation for them to give up playing against inferior competition in high school games.