ERIN – Rebooting a past Erin youth sports program has turned out to be a slam dunk idea.
Kelly Page, a longtime Erin resident, is spearheading the return of a recreational basketball fundamentals program in town called Erin Hoops 2.0.
In an interview, Page explained she was involved in the original Erin Hoops growing up which was started by Patrick Suessmuth in the 1990s.
“What Erin Hoops was, was teaching young kids fundamentals of basketball, teaching how to play on a team and then he would do small camps for the kids and so on and so forth,” Page said.
She explained the original Erin Hoops unfortunately ended when Suessmuth died in 2014.
“It hurt the community a lot because he was so involved with the kids and everything in Erin and no one’s ever opened it up again or tried to get it opened up again,” Page said.
Now a mother herself, Page recently signed her young son up for a basketball program in Brampton and wasn’t impressed with it.
“They weren’t teaching the kids any fundamentals, they were expecting them ‘here’s a basketball you already know what to do,’” Page explained.
She then floated the idea to her husband and asked the community if they would be interested for a program for children to learn or advance their basketball skills. She was expecting about 10 or 15 people to sign up.
“Within two hours I had 90 kids wanting to sign up,” Page said, with an age range of five to 17.
She said Erin already has solid hockey and soccer programs but believes a lot of people travel out for basketball and should be able to stay in their hometown to learn, practice or play.
She recalled personally finding it helpful growing up, playing rep ball and for the high school team, to have a place to go one evening a week where Suessmuth had the gym open in the evening to play one-on-one, scrimmage and generally practice.
“It was just giving the kids something to do instead of just, you know, hanging out on the streets and causing mischief,” Page said.
Despite the name, Page considers this to be a fresh start for the organization and isn't technically connected with the past program.
There’s still lots of work ahead for Page, who has the okay from Erin’s youth committee and the town itself, such as arranging insurance, getting the business registered, lining up coaches and mentors and booking appropriate venues in town such as at the Centre 2000 or a local elementary school.
There’s also a lot of ideas floating around for how it should run but Page figured there will be things such as a program for younger children to learn the basics, a house league for older children or even just a bit of extra coaching for those already on teams.
Page plans to have Erin Hoops 2.0 running by September and will post updates on how to sign up or get involved through a Facebook page.
