JULY 2024
“The Rise of Youth Basketball in Canada: A Dive into Toronto’s Basketball Landscape”
Read time: 5 minutes
Basketball has seen a tremendous surge in popularity among youth in Canada, especially in cities like Toronto. This boom has transformed the local basketball landscape, bringing both opportunities and challenges for families. In this blog post, we will explore the factors behind this rise, its impact on Toronto’s basketball scene, and the positive and negative effects on the families involved.
The Growth of Basketball Participation in Canada
Over the past decade, basketball has become one of the fastest-growing sports in Canada. According to a 2019 survey by the Canadian Fitness & Lifestyle Research Institute, basketball participation among youth aged 12 to 17 increased by 25% from 2010 to 2019. This growth can be attributed to several factors:
- Increased Media Exposure: The success of Canadian players getting scholarships in the NCAA, coupled with those who go on to play professionally in the NBA, has a tremendous impact on the youth who observe the sport. The number of Canadians that participate in NCAA Division 1 sports increases every year, with 150 players on the men’s side alone last year. Additionally, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the latest Canadian NBA player to earn the status of “Superstar”, narrowly missing out on winning the NBA’s MVP award last seaoson. This, along with the historic 2019 NBA Championship win by the Toronto Raptors, inspires more and more young Canadians to take up the sport.
- Grassroots & Community Programs: The popularity has also increased the number of organizations dedicated to furthering the sport, and the community’s investment in its growth. Local communities and schools have been investing in basketball infrastructure, providing more opportunities for children to play and develop their skills, and private organizations continue to materialize to support the growing demand of children wanting to participate in it competitively or recreationally.
Positive Effects (The Good)
With all major shifts or changes of this sort, there are always good and bad that come with it. I would say that the growth of the sport has been an overall positive, with some key areas contributing to the impact:
- Accessibility: Unlike Canada’s long-standing national sport, hockey, basketball is much more affordable and provides ample participation opportunities to a diverse group of people. Hockey has for the most part become unaffordable for the average family, and this has led to a decrease in the number of kids who are participating in it year-over-year. Wide participation in sports is crucial to the healthy development of our youth.
- Professional Instruction: With more privatization of sports happening in Canada, this opens the door for higher-quality coaches to be the primary influences on athletes. In the past, the sports system in Canada relied too heavily on school teachers to provide high-quality instruction to athletes, and families would have far less choice over where their kids were able to develop their skills and passion for the game. Since all children are different and may be looking for different things, this choice allows people to find what suits them best rather than leaving it to “luck of the draw”.
Negative Effects on Families
However, the increasing popularity of basketball also brings some challenges:
- Too Many Choices: The flip side of increased professional instruction is the fact that there are a lot of organizations that are providing subpar quality. With any boom in any industry, we often see a point where over-saturation occurs and I fear that this has started to happen in basketball. The standards of who is allowed to start a basketball program, and what prerequisites must exist for their program to have legitimacy, are generally low.
- The Culture of Winning: I never played hockey, but between my brother-in-law being a professional player and now coach, and anecdotal evidence accumulated from others over the years, I have heard enough to know that there is something fundamentally wrong with the youth hockey culture in Canada. There is too much emphasis on status and winning, competitiveness among parents, and pressure on the young kids. And to an extent, it is understandable when you have invested $40,000 in a single year’s worth of hockey for your kid. But it misses the point of youth sports. And I fear that basketball is starting to trend in this direction… I have said it in several previous posts, and I’ll say it again — winning matters but should never be prioritized over personal and athletic development.
The explosion of basketball’s popularity among youth in Canada, particularly in Toronto, has reshaped the local basketball landscape. My advice on how to navigate it as a parent? Starting with the understanding of what you want your kids to get out of the program, and looking for places that align with those desires, is the thing that will provide the optimal results. As the sport continues to grow, families, coaches, and organizations need to support young athletes in a way that balances their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. With the growing number of organizations out there, there is also a growing challenge of sifting through and determining which ones will provide the service you are looking for. Whether that is with Momentum or elsewhere, I urge all to take this seriously! Coaches can impact a child’s life just as much as teachers can. By understanding and addressing these challenges, we can ensure that the rise of basketball in Canada remains a positive force for all involved.
Written by: Nem Mitrovic