Montreal's new pro basketball team making inroads in community with youth tournament
CBC
Growing up in Montreal, Élie Karojo never had a local basketball team to cheer for — never mind the chance to improve his skills alongside any professional athletes.
Now that he is one, he wants to make sure kids in his hometown have those opportunities.
"I'm going to help them play pro, get to the next level and get better at basketball," said the Montreal Alliance forward.
The team, which played its first season this year in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), held a mini basketball tournament in Montreal on Saturday for more than a dozen kids in the city.
Players ran drills and coached games, all while making a stronger connection with their young fans.
One of those young fans is Gensley Succes. The 14-year-old said getting to train with professional players from his city meant a lot to him.
"[They're] a great team and playing with them is like I'm a professional basketball player," Succes said. "Not everybody can do that."
While Succes's dream is to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he said he knows he needs to train harder because it's not an easy task.
That's why Elijah Ifejeh, another forward with the Alliance, says it is important to support aspiring professional players from an early age — especially those from Montreal, which is steadily growing its reputation as a basketball city.
"I'm from here, so people didn't expect me to be where I'm at right now," said Ifejeh. "So having [this] experience and showing them to have hope is good for them."
On the court, the inaugural season for the Alliance was a tough one, finishing in last place. Despite that, the team had the best attendance in the league, averaging nearly 3,000 fans per game at the Verdun Auditorium.
And for Ifejeh, being able to play in a hometown jersey is priceless.
"That's the best feeling," he said. "Especially playing at home, [with] family, coaches, just everybody that you know that's seen you make it."
Both Karojo and Ifejeh say fans can expect more wins next season. In the meantime, the Alliance plans to do more of these mini tournaments for youth all around the city.
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.