Moncton joins new Maritime women's basketball league
CBC
As a basketball player at Riverview High School, and then at Mount Allison University, Shannon Parlee racked up a number of awards.
Parlee was an All-Conference All-Star in each of her four years at Mount A, and Athlete of the year in 2009.
But once university was over, there was nowhere for the passionate basketball player to turn.
"For myself personally having played four years of university and you leave and that's like, then what? There's some rec leagues and that, but to keep having high level basketball is kind of the idea." Parlee said.
Now, Parlee is hoping to provide an opportunity for women over the age of 19 to play amateur basketball.
She's now the owner and director of the Moncton Mystics, which will join the Maritime Women's Basketball Association for its inaugural season in April of 2022.
The Mystics will join the Port City Fog of Saint John, the Fredericton Freeze, the Halifax Thunder, the Halifax Hornets and the Windsor Edge. Each team will have 6 home games and 6 away games.
Parlee says the idea is to attract women who are currently playing university sports, professional players who are overseas, but home for the off-season, and former players.
"There isn't much like this. You look throughout Canada there really isn't anything." Parlee says.
"It's just been an under-served niche in the basketball community. I kind of looked at it as, 'Well I would love to have this but it doesn't exist, so I guess you have to build it' and that's kind of what we did. We had to build it."
Parlee already has a list of interested players—double the 16 players she needs for the team.
There has been a lot of planning to get the new league up and running. Parlee says COVID-19 slowed the launch, but a schedule for 2022 is now in the works.
Parlee says the next push will be for sponsors to support the team. She says the idea is to have all costs covered for the players.
The player-turned-team owner hopes the new league generates interest and propels the sport into greater popularity.
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