it's a final four kinda weekend

That's what's on my agenda and I'll be cheering on my Kentucky Wildcats - Go Blue!  Happy Weekend Everyone!

lady ballers

From September til May, Tuesdays, Thursdays and most weekends are spent with these crazy young ladies, who are among the top basketball players in the city.  Lucky me?  Most days - yes.  I'll get back to you on the other days.

hump day humour | semi pro

With the official start to our basketball season starting, here's a clip from one of my favourite movies - Semi Pro - and the birth of the "Alley Oop".

another gold

Congrats again to the Etobicoke Storm who won gold this weekend in Kitchener. We fought back Saturday and Sunday after a tough loss on Friday night to beat two great teams that had previous beaten us. Current record - 25-7.

And to top it all off, rankings for the Provincials has been set, we're #3 in the province. From #11 to #3 in one year. Fantastic girls - your coaches are very proud of you!

Next up - Syracuse New York.

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silver

The girls of the Etobicoke Storm had another successful tournament, bringing home the silver medal from the London Ramblers Classic. Only 6 points separated them from the winning team, and be sure that we will be working hard so that the score is the other way when we meet up next. Current record - 20-5.

Congrats girls.

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youth without shelter

From sarah.wandering contributor Heather Esplen of Synchronicity Designs.

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For the second Christmas in a row, our Etobicoke Storm team has contributed donations to a fantastic local organization, Youth Without Shelter.

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Youth Without Shelter (YWS) is an emergency residence serving homeless youth aged 16 to 24. The shelter, located in Etobicoke, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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They have 50 beds in all, with 30 of them on the emergency side and 20 on the Stay in School part of the building. There are very few times, when an empty bed stays empty for long.

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YWS is blessed with a wonderful group of people who run and maintain the shelter. It’s very clear that they are all there to help the youth in any way they can to provide them with a second chance, a fresh start one day at a time.

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The shelter goes above and beyond providing the basic necessities of life by offering support and training programs along with a unique educational opportunity to assist those youth who want to finish school.

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“Our vision is ending homelessness... one youth at a time, one step at a time.”

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Over the course of the last two years I have been fortunate enough to work with a wonderful lady, Judy Leroux, the Development Manager at the shelter, to provide fresh new bedrooms for the youth that feel like home.

With the help of The Humberveiw Group and Benjamin Moore who sponsored the ‘Room Mates’ program, with all new bedding and paint for the shelter, we selected a colour scheme and new colourful bedding. Each room has been uniquely hand painted by each corporate or family sponsor with a different fun and inviting design sure to please the youth that come to the shelter. To date the response for sponsorship has been outstanding. All of the 20 rooms on the emergency side have been sponsored and painted. The new focus is now on the Stay in School side of the shelter where the youth are anxiously awaiting their new rooms to be done.

For more information on how you can donate and paint a room or for more details on the shelter itself go to http://www.yws.on.ca/.

storm bball | update

I'm a little behind on posting, so here is an update on where the girls of the Etobicoke Storm are at. Current record 16-4. Tournament record - 2 golds - 2 losses. 1 All Star Team Pick and 1 Tournament MVP. 3 proud coaches and 1 manager and several enthusiastic fans and family members.
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We're heading to London this weekend for what is sure to be another tough tournament and hoping again to come out on top. Go Storm!
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And just for fun, here are some [ok, a lot - I'm a very proud coach] pics of the girls in action. [A special thanks to our team photographers aka the parents].
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go storm!

For those of you unaware, in my "spare" time, I am an assistant coach of a competitive rep basketball team in Etobicoke. Tuesday and Thursday nights, and most weekends from December til May, I spend my time with 12 very talented teenagers, running drills, scrimmaging, yelling at them from the sidelines, throwing up of high fives and gaining extreme enjoyment from watching them run sprints. Meet the Etobicoke Storm Major Midgets, ranked amongst the best in the province and currently 6-0 on the season with 1 tournament championship. Expect to hear more from me on this bunch of girls and their quest for Division 1 gold.
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