Inaugural ABA Club Invitational being hosted in Lethbridge

By Lethbridge Herald on July 18, 2024.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward ABA executive director Dave Drabiuk speaks with local media about the inaugural ABA Club Invitational on Thursday at U of L.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Young club basketball players from across the province will compete on the hardwood at the University of Lethbridge in the inaugural ABA (Alberta Basketball Association) Club Invitational this weekend.

Top club teams at the U13 and U15 levels for male and female from Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer will be battling in the invitational  beginning today,in hopes of gaining provincial club supremacy on Sunday in the finals.

The local southern Alberta team from Cardston withdrew from the tournament earlier this week.

 “We’re really looking forward to a great weekend of basketball and really this being a  step forward on the right path for development in the province,” Dave Drabiuk, ABA executive director.

While Edmonton and Calgary were in the consideration for the inaugural tournament, Lethbridge seemed to fit the best in what ABA was looking for between the U of L’s cooperation and them making the gym available.

“We thought it’d be absolutely perfect for a couple of reasons,” said Drabiuk.

“One, I don’t think I’m speaking out of school when I say sometimes the Lethbridge basketball community’s felt like a bit of an afterthought compared to Edmonton and Calgary. So this was a great way to reaffirm to Lethbridge that we value Lethbridge and southern Alberta by coming down here. And secondly, we know the history that this area has. So to have a historic Alberta Basketball event in this community, it just seemed to fit with  the legacy (that) southern Alberta has within the whole Basketball Alberta and Alberta sporting framework.”

Drabiuk spoke about how players can get the exposure and develop in an invitational tournament.

“The club environment in western Canada and Alberta in particular has really become a very competitive basketball experience,” said Drabiuk.

“High school basketball is still the coin of the realm in terms of recruitment. But there are a lot of post-secondary coaches that recruit out of the club world as well or they’ll use club as the comparator. So these two or three high school players that are now playing against a club from either another province or another part of the province, it’s a different comparator than the high school season. It’s shorter, it’s a little bit more intense in terms of how steep the learning curve can be for some of these athletes.”

“We’ve got the potential for some really exciting basketball this weekend,” said Drabiuk.

Games run today through Sunday at U of L’s First Choice Savings Centre.

Championship finals begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

The schedule can be found at http://www.abbasketball.ca/article/96176.