The Lloydminster Catholic School Division and Golden Ticket Sports are teaming up to give the next generation’s aspiring basketball players a place to hone their craft.
The Golden Ticket Basketball Academy is going to start in September of 2021 at St.Mary’s Elementary and Ecole St. Thomas and will be open to students from grades 5 to 7.
In the mornings from Tuesday to Thursday, students will work with local coach Chris King and other internationally recognized coaches with the goal of nurturing their athletic abilities and inspire a love of the game. By the end, students will see over 100 hours of elite basketball training, Golden Ticket says.
Co-Founder Chris King says that the goal of this program is to provide a local facility to aspiring basketball players, and also inspire students to take the game to the next level if they choose.
“For myself, it probably means a little bit more being a local from Kitscoty. Growing up, there wasn’t a lot of opportunities to really push sport at a younger age. So when this idea came up, having the opportunity to really push elite athletes into the sport at an early age, and give them a stream up to junior high and high school was a really tremendous opportunity.”
Aside from the technical skills and knowledge of the game, the Academy seeks to teach students many skills that can be transferred into other sports or aspects of everyday life.
In addition to that, it also gets kids up and moving during the day, which LCSD Elementary Athletics Co-Ordinator Anthony Bender says can help them in the classroom.
“It’s a proven fact also that students who are active also do better academically, so if we can get them active first thing in the morning and get those synapses firing in their brain, they’ll hopefully do better in school as well.”
Some internationally recognized coaches that will be joining the Golden Ticket team will be announced in the future.