Two Estevan athletes have secured spots on the boys 15 and under provincial basketball team.
Colton Isaacs and Noah Mvula are high schoolers who are taking their basketball career to the next level. The boys tried out for the Saskatchewan provincial boys’ team, going through four stages of tryouts in order to make the cut of 24 players. Going through all four tryout camps, Colton and Noah both earned themselves a position on the team.
“It’s a good feeling to make that team because it’s probably the best in Saskatchewan. There’s always more competitions out there,” Noah said.
“It’s probably one of the best teams in Saskatchewan,” Colton agreed.
The two boys started to play in Estevan when they were young, and nurtured a love for the game as they played in elementary school and in club groups over the pandemic.
“Everyone outside was playing, so I played too,” Colton explained.
“Recess basketball was great,” Noah added.
Colton and Noah trained together under coach Tanner Kozun over the COVID-19 pandemic, and he was equally impressed with them.
“The initial plan was to send them there (to the camps) to see how they stack up.” Kozun said. “For these two to make this program, that’s huge.”
He goes on: “It’s an exciting start. I don’t think Estevan has had a kid on the national team for a while. It’s pretty exciting to have not just one but two out of those 24 kids. It shows a lot of promise about what could be.”
“I think we stacked up pretty good against them.” Noah said. “The competitors were pretty good for Saskatchewan.”
“There’s some good competitors, there’s some who are not as good. There was a good mix.” Colton said.
“Shows that there’s other kids out there that have the passion that we do.” Noah added.
Although the boys started to play basketball for fun, and continue to play because of a love for the game, their end goal is to get scholarships for universities, and hopefully take their career to bigger courts. According to Kozun, the boys will already be on universities’ watch lists with their acceptance to the U15 team.
“A lot of these kids who use this program do continue to play basketball as they get older, and a lot of these kids who get into this program are being looked at by someone. They’ll be on a few colleges' radars at an early age,” Kozun said.
“But it’s not necessarily about every kid wanting to get scouted, it’s just another option to provide kids another sporting opportunity.”
Although the boys don’t have many competitions to look forward to, they plan to give this team their all, and continue playing for as long as they can. Camps and practices will be most of their sessions, but they are optimistic about the chances for a game.
“There’s always more work to do, cause there’s more competitions out there,” Noah said. “We really don’t know about COVID restrictions being lifted. We’re hoping we’re getting something, but we don’t know.”
“Gotta stay ready.” Colton added.
“Usually Team Sask would be travelling to different places like Alberta during the summer for competitions. Now they just have weekend camps. A few weekends over the summer they’ll get together and train. COVID is still making the water a little tricky,” Kozun concluded.
Despite possible misgivings and a low chance of competing, making this team is a huge step in the boys’ hopefully long and successful basketball careers.
