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Orangeville Hawks ‘done for season’, hope to return in the fall

April 20, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

“From a basketball standpoint, the Orangeville Hawks are done for the season,” said Orangeville Hawks president Greg Verner.

The Hawks were having a successful year before the current crisis caused a stop to all basketball activity. As the Hawks rely on school basketball courts to play their game, as soon as the schools closed, the Hawks were forced to shutdown too.

The younger players managed to get their season in as they have been on the courts since September, but the older competitors, ages 12 and up, will not be able to complete their current basketball year.

“Right now, all our high school age kids would still be playing, and our grade 8 kids would be getting ready to have their provincial championships,” Mr. Verner explained. “We had to stop when they closed the schools, so since before March break. Our oldest group of boys would have still been playing to the beginning of June.”

The Ontario Basketball Association managed to get a few of the finals completed, mostly for younger divisions, before the rest of the season was cancelled.

As for the Hawks, they were going to hold a summer basketball camp to let players hone their skills, get some practice in, and for novice players, to learn how to play the game.

“We were going to hold a summer camp for two weeks in July,” Mr. Verner said. “Ontario Basketball has cancelled all of their summer programs. I feel sorry for the kids – we had three or four teams that were going to do well at the provincials.”

Basketball is currently the fastest growing sport in Canada with many new organizations being created over the last few years.

The Toronto Raptors 2019 NBA championship win has really boosted interest in the sport with many younger players expressing an interest in learning the game.

The Orangeville Hawks have done an excellent job of working with young players to introduce them to the sport and helping them work on their skills.

With even town-run outdoor basketball courts off limits for the time being, young hoops players won’t be playing any pick-up games any time soon.

However, those lucky enough to have a basketball hoop over the garage at home will still be able to stay on top of their skills.

Mr. Verner said they are hoping to get the Hawks back in action in a few months.

“We’ll wait through the summer and hopefully kick it off in September, but there’s no guarantee.”

There are currently no active sports Leagues in the province and all public and private sporting venues have been closed to avoid having people congregate.

There is no reasonable estimate at this time as to when any sporting leagues, clubs, or associations will be able to resume activities.


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