WYBA tourney shows major growth in hoops

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This article was published 24/05/2025 (346 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

May long weekend really put the Westman in the Westman Youth Basketball Association.

The regional basketball club held its annual home tournament last weekend, largely in the facility that the club calls home in the Brandon University Healthy Living Centre.

Regional teams from every corner of the province – many teams from the Parkland area – descended on the Wheat City with players even coming from as far as The Pas to compete in the hoops showdown.

WYBA started as an idea between Novell Thomas, Jaime Taggart and Melissa Robinson in 2017 and launched to provide increased training opportunities in the game, especially for young females, but open to all in Brandon and the surrounding area.

Juan Mosquera coached in the beginning before taking over the program. Mosquera has coached at just about every level since arriving in Brandon, first helping the BU women’s team under Thomas, and his services being continually utilized as he now leads WYBA as its executive director.

While participation numbers fluctuated year-to-year in the early days, Mosquera pointed to January 2023 as when girls basketball really started to explode here.

There are likely a few reasons to attribute the uptick in female participation, but it’s a term applied elsewhere in the sports world that seems to have taken root here as well: the Caitlin Clark effect.

“People have always watched women’s sports, but we’re definitely seeing more and more examples of those high-level athletes breaking through and becoming more and more popular,” said Mosquera of the women’s basketball scene in North America that continues to grow with the popularity of players like the University of Iowa grad now playing for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.

“Female athletes have more females to look up to, opportunities to see them play, and most importantly, more opportunities to hit the court and play,” said Mosquera.

The resulting boost in popularity could be causation just as it much as could be correlated. Whatever the case, the women’s game is seeing undeniable increasing popularity.

“Those athletes have always been there, but now they’re reaching new audiences,” said Mosquera.

“It’s impacting young female athletes in ways like never before. The young players are now seeing what the Caitlin Clarks, Paige Bueckers of the world are doing, and it motivates them.”

Club basketball teams have always been around the area, and some have enjoyed years of strength and produced provincial team talents and college and university-level players over the years.

But May long started to feel like a movement in the Manitoba basketball scene, largely here in Westman as well.

Not even a decade since the club’s inception and the HLC showcased some of the best young basketball talent in the province.

It was May long weekend and the young players, coaches and officials could be anywhere other than back in the gym after another winter of being indoors, but to hoop heads, the opportunity to play meaningful games is too good to pass up.

Keep in mind, some of the best players from participating clubs were at the Turtle Island Basketball Tournament at the University of Winnipeg’s Duckworth Centre.

That tournament is widely considered Canada’s premier all-Indigenous basketball tournament, featuring divisions for 17U girls and boys, men’s and women’s teams, and eight boys and eight girls teams in the youth division. Many of western and northern Manitoba’s best Indigenous players would have been in both locations if it was an option, but chose the Winnipeg tournament and the chance to win some cash in the process.

A few blocks down Portage Avenue, moments after a portion of Donald Street was renamed “Chad Posthumus Way” for the late Winnipeg Sea Bear and hometown product that died last November after complications following corrective surgery, the basketball scene in Winnipeg reached a frenzy. It was also the same night the Winnipeg Sea Bears electrified the basketball scene in the provincial capital, beating the Edmonton Stingers 92-89 in front of 10,649 energetic fans at Canada Life Centre.

Meanwhile, at the same time back in Brandon, the WYBA tournament saw its first competition as the U13 and U14 divisions hit the hard court in both boys’ and girls’ action.

Forty games were played over two days with players as young as 11 competing, the majority of games taking place at the three courts at the HLC.

Over at Crocus Plains, one of the tournament’s best games likely took place in front of a few family and friends. Not huge numbers in terms of an audience, but support from the smattering of fans was huge.

The Dauphin Hawks U18 girls trailed the Winkler Haymakers 21-14 in the second quarter when Hawks coach Scott Carr called a timeout with 7:21 left in the frame.

His message was simple.

“Our energy is low,” he said, as his team listened solemnly while sipping water.

His team went on a 13-point run out of the timeout and played disruptive and hard defence. Dauphin held the Haymakers to just two points for the rest of the quarter to lead 34-21 at the half.

The best player on the floor was likely Winkler’s Maria Bergen, as the highly-sought university prospect was everywhere before hitting a massive three-pointer as the clock expired to end the third quarter.

But the Hawks continued to extend the lead, and it wasn’t just due to one player either. They played as a team, with as much energy coming from the bench in the final two quarters as the five on the floor.

Dauphin won that contest, but in the rematch on Sunday, Winkler held the upper hand through-out on the way to a 57-49 win and a weekend split between the two strong teams.

“They play together a lot. They work hard. They respect each other. They’re just a great group of kids. It doesn’t take much to coach them,” Carr said of his team and how they play as a unit and it shows.

Carr credited John Marshall as the founding father of the Hawks program in Dauphin and pointed out the dedicated volunteers that make a program like it run smoothly, but he also was quick to credit the athletes and their dedication to the game.

“Female basketball is really taking off,” Carr said.

“I feel that we’re a year or two ahead of the curve in Dauphin having that little bit of a jump compared to other clubs, but now it’s really taking off. I have athletes on our team that prefer basketball over other sports, but that wasn’t the case five years ago. They play it because they love it and have passion for it.”

A little further up the road from Dauphin is a club in its infancy.

In Swan River, the coaching trio of Gary Wowchuk, and brothers Scott and Chad Berhmann have created the Swan Valley Bluehawks basketball club.

The two brothers learned to love the game while growing up in Minitonas. Now in their 40s, the younger brother Chad was first recruited to coach by then school principal, the late Jay Sullivan. Chad was still in school himself, a Grade 10 student when he took over after Sullivan’s death.

“It kept me out of trouble, but more so gave me something to work towards. I was mostly playing while still in school, but loved coaching so much that it just grew on me,” said the younger Behrmann.

“I learned so much from Jay, mostly just about the love and the respect of the game. That’s what I hope to share with these kids that I teach and coach is what the sport can provide you.”

Berhmann took a teaching job at his alma mater in the Swan Valley Regional Secondary School where he leads the junior varsity team.

He recruited Wowchuck to help provide his experience on that team, where they decided the best way to see the kids improve through the game was spring developmental basketball.

Hence the Bluehawk program – named for Wowchuk’s alma mater Dickinson State – was born.

“We don’t see a lot of the city teams, which puts our athletes at a bit of a disadvantage, so this gives us an opportunity to see those teams, get some good games, and hopefully keep improving,” said Wowchuk.

Wowchuk spent 25 years coaching football, both at the local high school along with brother Rick, a longtime teacher and the area’s current Member of the Legislative Assembly, as well as regional teams and other sports as well.

Gary is also no stranger to public service, currently serving as chair of the board of trustees of the Swan Valley School Division and many other community boards and initiatives.

“I’m not sure where I’d be without sport,” said Wowchuk.

He pointed to a primary influence in his life in Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2007 inductee Duane Whyte, who led the boys basketball program at the high school for decades.

In Wowchuk’s mind, a lifetime of sport and public service go hand-in-hand, so when the younger Behrmann asked him to coach so it was a no-brainer.

“There’s a a lot of neat things that come with this,” said Wowchuk. “There’s the basketball, and all of the things that come with that, the social aspect and providing kids in our community a healthy, active lifestyle, but being a regional school, they start high school as friends because of sport. That’s huge, especially on the girls side.”

The oldest Berhmann, Scott, is a physical education teacher at Swan River’s Ecole South School, where, you guessed it, he also coaches the middle years boys basketball team.

There’s certainly no questioning the commitment of the trio, giving up evenings and weekends to volunteer coach the same kids they teach Monday to Friday.

“It’s just that growth. That’s really why anyone coaches is to see them grow and thrive, and learn the life lessons that come with it,” said Scott.

“It really helps that I have my brother and Gary and me all working together. It benefits everyone, the kids especially. They were willing to put in the work, so we were more than willing to volunteer because it’s worth it.”

The burgeoning scene across the province and in somewhat new territory, although not all that new either.

There’s always been basketball, but the surge since 2023 is hard to deny. With more opportunity to continue to grow, the sky may be the limit.

“WYBA hosts this tournament and does an excellent job,” said Carr. “As WYBA grows, we all grow.”

» mpackwood@brandonsun.com