Juel and Juel Prep teams gearing up in Pelham
The new administrator for the Niagara Juel and Juel Prep basketball programs is a big fan of the province-wide leagues.
“It’s a great basketball program to advance female players in the province to the next level,” said Don Larman, who will administer the program for head coaches Frank Keltos (Juel) and Sue Sentance (Prep), and the host Pelham Panthers Basketball Association.
“I like the program and I believe in what the Pelham Panthers does as an organization and its philosophy.”
He is looking forward to being part of the process again after a one-year absence.
“I just have a small role and I am going to do all the administrative stuff for the Juel program so that allows Frank and Sue to just do the coaching,” Larman said. “They don’t have to be involved in any extraneous details or responsibilities. And I like doing that sort of thing with programs.”
Larman likes that the Panthers place just as much emphasis on overall development as they do on all other aspects of the game.
He is very familiar with the entire JUEL process, serving as head coach of the Niagara Prep team for four seasons and also serving on the Juel executive board for two years.
Pelham has taken over the Niagara Juel franchise from the Niagara Falls Red Raiders and are planning to enhance the program by adding developmental teams at the Juel and Juel Prep levels.
“We are hoping to get enough players to come out to have a roster of 12 on the Juel and Juel Prep teams and then a farm system where players could be called up to play,” Larman said.
The B teams would play in tournaments and in Basketball Ontario leagues. They would join the Juel and Juel Prep teams in strength and conditioning workouts and skills development with No Limit Performance.
“We will try to mirror the Juel program so the players see the same concepts that the JUEL players are seeing.”
Juel rules allow for affiliated players to be called up to play when there are issues with injuries or absences. Five players can be called up during the season, with each player being allowed to play in one weekend of action.
“It is up to the coaches to bring that player up for development purposes,” Larman said.
Pelham basketball would love to have two developmental teams at the Juel and Juel Prep level and if numbers permit would have under-17 and under-19 squads in the Juel age groups and under-15 and under-16 teams at the Juel Prep level.
When Larman was head coach of the Juel prep team, he would bring in outside evaluators to select the team and Pelham basketball is planning to implement the same procedure this year.
“They want to make it as transparent as possible,” he said. “None of the evaluators will have a daughter trying out for either level of the team. That crew will be part of the selection process along with the two coaches.”
Helping to select the team will be Larman, Pelham Panthers president and coach Brian Bleich, Niagara College women’s head coach Chris Rao, Brock University women’s head coach Mike Rao and Governor Simcoe and former Juel prep assistant Jill Stiefelmeyer.
All inquiries and questions about Juel can be directed to Larman at niagarajuelbasketball@gmail.com.
Juel tryouts will be held Wednesday, Aug. 21 from 7:30 to 9 p.m., which includes a parent information meeting at 7 p.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 28 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 31 from 12:30 to 2 p.m.; and, Saturday, Sept. 7 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Juel Prep tryouts will be held: Wednesday, Aug. 21 from 6 to 7:30 p.m., which includes a parent information meeting at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 28 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 31 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; and, Saturday, Sept. 7 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
All tryouts will be held at the Pelham community centre.
All players must register online at pelhambasketball.ca. There is a one-time tryout fee of $25 to be paid at the first tryout.
Photo courtesy of Neil Campbell.
