Eastern Ontario Basketball Association: EOBA News

February 14, 2012

From the EOBA Executive

As we turn the corner on 2011 and shift our focus towards our mid and end of season activities for our respective clubs and teams, the EOBA Executive wanted to provide a mid-year recap of the season. We, as an executive, felt strongly that 2011-12 was a year to re-examine a number of recent decisions and re-establish our processes and procedures with respect to 'running the EOBA'.

Many of the changes were received very well by the majority of associations, conveners and coaches. To date the results of these efforts have yielded positive gains and we have been pleased with how the season has been running.

To give you a sense of the magnitude of our collective efforts this season, the EOBA:

• Includes 106 teams in 7 age groups,

• Works with 24 member clubs across our region,

• Represents approximately 1,150 players (Competitive),

• Scheduled 675 games,

• Provides support, when able, to the two Ottawa based JUEL teams (Nationals and Capitals),

• Will host the Major Midget Boys and Major Bantam Girls Provincial Championships,

• Maintains on-going communications with the OVBABO who represent our local officials.

While we have been pleased with the results thus far, we did experience a few ‘hiccups’. The most visible was scheduling for the Major Bantam girls divisions. We realized there was a delay in confirming the schedule and worked to rectify the situation with those involved, subsequently we have done a debrief on the root causes and believe we can work to ensure this does not happen again the in future. Convening a division is a big task and unfortunately, we ended up with one person trying to manage the scheduling of 27 teams. Equally important is the timeliness in providing the Conveners with gym availability to allow them the required flexibility to create the schedules.

Over the course of the year we also dealt with a number of minor items which include:

• One (1) Fair Play incident,

• Discussions around Major and Minor teams playing against each other and the implications,

• Ensuring our minor officials are properly prepared.

We are now in planning for the EOBA Championships in all age groups and the majority of those have been booked and plans are proceeding nicely. We also want to acknowledge and thank those associations who will be hosting the Championships this year.

Going forward the EOBA Executive will continue our commitment to:

• Transparent and open communications with member associations,

• Providing support, feedback and input to Basketball Ontario on items of particular importance to our region,

• Improved relationships with the local Universities and Colleges where possible,

• Improving the experience for players, parents, coaches and officials,

• Maintaining a leadership position within the Ontario basketball community.

We wish you all the best with the balance of your season. We would welcome your feedback on the 2011-12 season, your experiences and of course and suggestions you may have on how we can improve the “EOBA experience”.

Regards,

Randy Godfrey President Elect,

Eastern Ontario Basketball Association (EOBA)

CONVERNERS, COACHES AND MANAGERS, RESPONSIBILITES DOCUMENT IS AVAILABLE, PRINT OUT A COPY IT HAS LOT'S OF GOOD INFO TO MAKE SURE THE SEASON RUN SMOOTHLY!