Festivities abound for FIBA tournament

There’s going to be a lot of action off the courts, too, when an international basketball tournament comes to St. Catharines this month.

Organizers of the FIBA U18 Americas Championship got city councillors up to speed this week on the festivities, which include a 3-on-3 tournament, street party and kid zone.

“Canada Games is not just a sporting event, it’s a cultural event. It’s a community engagement event,” said Doug Hamilton, board chair of the 2021 Canada Summer Games Host Society, which is helping to organize the FIBA championship.

Canada Games organizers stepped in to assist running the FIBA U18 event when the Niagara Sports Commission folded in November. The commission was originally going to host the event with Canada Basketball.

Hamilton told council Monday the event is back on track and coming together nicely with the help of the city, which has lent expertise, helped purchase a new basketball court and allowed the group to use the old courthouse as a base.

Normally, Canada Games holds a number of test events to try out facilities, but those test events usually happen in the last few months before the Games take place.

“We’re not calling this a test event. We’re really calling it a learning event,” Hamilton said. “There’s a lot of learning that we’ve been doing and we’re going to make some mistakes still in the next couple of weeks. We’ve already made a number and we’re already figuring it out, but it’s coming together and this will be a very special event.”

Hamilton said even though it’s an event with Canada Basketball, they are making use of local assets and expertise.

That includes working with Brock University students who are helping with community engagement by putting on a number of events at the Pen Centre for a week starting this Friday.

The Wise Guys Charity Fund’s Wise Girls committee is holding a 3-on-3 charity basketball challenge downtown on Friday, June

8. The corporate community has been targeted to put in teams of three to four players, with all proceeds going directly to the charity fund to be reinvested locally. Teams will have the opportunity to draft a celebrity coach on June 7 at Kully’s Sports Bar.

On Saturday, June 9, there’s a free street festival in downtown St. Catharines from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The front lawn of city hall will hold fitness activities and Market Square will have sports courts with various programming. There will be a kid zone and Ridley College will bring its Tigerfest community carnival downtown with games, bouncy castles and other activities.

“There’s going to be a DJ, there’s going to be music, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Jennifer Douglas, a community partnership officer with the city.

The actual FIBA U18 basketball tournament runs June 10 to

16. It’s the first time the tournament is being held in Canada and it features male under-18 players from eight countries.