Leveraging community reach for upcoming season drafts
County Clippers is a youth basketball organization in Prince Edward running house league programs in the fall and winter months.
The organization has come a long way since Rob Garden and Steve O’Brien recognized the need for a kids basketball league in the County 10 years ago and started off with just 24 players from Grades Seven and Eight
Four years later, they started a rep program and now the organization has four rep teams and 225 house league players ranging from Kindergarten to Grade 10.
“We had tremendous results – record number of players – and the best part was, we had kids coming from all parts of Prince Edward County.”
Rob Garden
President, County Clippers
“99.3 County made the most sense” says Rob Garden, County Clippers’s president.
The Clippers use County FM’s community platform to connect with kids and families of all ages in an immediate way that enables the organization to build awareness of their season activities faster.
Sportmanship and determination
With 99.3 County FM, County Clippers had boys and girls of all ages join in their house league, in numbers breaking any previous holding.
Kids excited to give it their all.
Inrig-Pieterse, coach to the U- 14 boys team, and assistant coach, Christin Dickenson, led the team to the bronze medal game at the Ontario Cup this year, where they narrowly lost by one point.
“We had such an amazing season,” Inrig-Pieterse says. “If you look at where we started to where we are now, it’s amazing the growth the boys had.”
“We won our own home tournament, and we went four and zero on some weekends.”
For the Leaders of Tomorrow
This year Garden took a break from coaching and was able to watch the athletes develop all across the various teams.
“We had great success on the courts,” he said. “But it was really great to step back and watch the kids grow.”
“It shows me that everything we’re trying to accomplish with these young men and women is working, they’re becoming leaders.”
“I think that’s bigger than sport, and that is what we want to focus on.”
“I recommend it to any non-profit organization; we will definitely be back next summer.”
Rob Garden
President, County Clippers
