Niagara Basketball Asssociation
Set to Go for 2008-2009 Season
NBA Press - The Niagara Basketball Association's Annual General Meeting was held at the Central United Church Hall in Welland on Wednesday, September 17, 2008. The standard topics were discussed in front of an excellent turnout of roundball enthusiasts. The highlights are: all players must be registered with the league BEFORE they step on the court due to insurance purposes. A quick e-mail to the treasurer BEFORE a new player plays with their name, address, date of birth and e-mail address is a reasonable notification. The team fees will remain at $950 this year with the $50 default deposit rolling over for existing teams. $25 of this is forfeited for each default a team causes during the season. The first half of the fees should have been paid at the meeting, with the other half due by mid-November. We have the same gyms as last year. A discussion was held regarding the use of the Friday night time slots, a time that we have not pursued in recent years. If more teams join the league, these Friday slots may be required. A number of teams indicated that this would not be a problem. Teams are required to have uniforms with numbers on the back. A number of local suppliers have made a pitch for business this season; for information on this, contact any one of the league executive. Defaulted games hit an all-time high last season; defaults are unacceptable for all concerned. An 0-8 record is not an excuse to disrupt fifteen people's lives. Last but not least, despite an unprecedented 91.81% score sheet submission rate last season, the obsessive-compulsive statistician will still be trying to hit 100%. We would also like to see the under-35 teams submit their score sheets to the Welland Tribune for publication on a weekly basis.
Three new teams will hit the hardwood this fall, all in the under-35 age group. Cash Trillions will start the season in B Tier while the Balloon Knots and a third, as yet unnamed team will compete in A Tier. It is with regret that I announce that the Signature Sign Classics, an over-35 squad that started as the CTAL Classics in the 1992-93 season will not compete this season. This leaves the A.B.A. (over-35 division) with eight teams.
Evan Kenney is the newest member of the N.B.A. Executive; he takes over from Jay Bray as scheduler. We want to keep Evan in the position for a long, long time, so PLEASE don't give him a hard time about your team's eventual schedule. It's a thankless job, but somebody has to do it. The league executive is still looking for a commissioner to help with the running of the league. Don't let the title scare you away, each member of the executive has a number of tasks that they each look after during the season. You don't even have to look like David Stern! We promise that there won't be any "leather vs. synthetic" controversies. If anyone has any interest at all, please contact any one of the other executive members.
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N.B.A. Executive 2007-08
Gord Digout, Treasurer
Evan Kenney, Scheduler
Joe Seliske, Statistician
The Commissioner's position is still vacant, if anyone is interested!
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Niagara Basketball Asssociation
Celebrates Its Own
NBA Press - The Annual NBA Stag and Awards Presentation was held at the Old Pelham Town Hall in Fenwick on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. Fifty-nine hardwood enthusiasts attended to receive their awards, assimilate the all-time league statistics and make short order of the finest in Neapolitan cuisine and Teressa Bellisimo's avian delights. A reasonable quantity of a fermented, hop-flavoured, barley-based beverage was also ingested. League founder Jack Randall was surprised with a cake on his seventieth birthday and tried in vain to get everyone to partake. Jack has not missed an NBA Stag since he started organizing them in 1972.
Paul Weller (P.O.I.T.S.) was the big winner on the night copping three individual awards and a team award. He won the AAA Division Scoring Championship with a 23.50 points per game average, membership in the 1000 Point Club with 1,139 career points and the John Doornekamp Memorial Trophy with a 39-point single game high score in the ABA (Over-35) Division. Paul was also a member of the AAA Division Champion P.O.I.T.S. squad. Four awards in one night, not bad!
Evan Kenney (CC Vesuvius) was introduced as the newest member of the NBA Executive. Evan takes over from Jason Bray as Scheduler commencing next season. The league is still searching for a new Commissioner, a wonderful opportunity for all of you David J. Stern wannabes! Anyone interested is encouraged to contact any member of the league executive. (NBA - Contact Us)
This year, former NBA player Dave Zezella from Molson's donated a plethora of prizes. A varied array of shirts, hats, cooler bags and gym bags were selected by Bernie Amyot (Millennium), Tim Bankert (Young Guns), Jason Bray (CC Vesuvius), Pat Cooney (Timbro), Gord Digout (Signature Sign Classics), Dave Jones (Golden Bros. Bulldogs), Steve Juhasz (Golden Bros. Bulldogs), Evan Kenney (CC Vesuvius), Francis Lee (Usetabe's), Sammy Priolo (Timbro), John Raso (D.J.B. Too), Joe Seliske (D.J.B.), Frank Sicoli (D.J.B.), Tom Skvorc (P.O.I.T.S.), Todd Thorne (D.J.B.), Ivan Willmore (D.J.B.) and Roger Woolcott (Rex Hotel).
The league executive would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for another successful season and is looking forward to seeing everyone back in the fall.
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N.B.A. Executive 2007-08
Doug Weeks, Commissioner (2nd from left)
Gord Digout, Treasurer (left)
Jason Bray, Scheduler (right)
Joe Seliske, Statistician( 2nd from right)
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2008 CHAMPIONS
A Division Champions - Usetabe's
B Division Champions - Young Guns
C Division Champions - Olympians
D Division Champions - Gophers
AAA Division Champions - Truck Toppers' P.O.I.T.S.
BBB Division Champions - Durward, Jones, Barkwell & Company (D.J.B.)
CCC Division Champions - CC Vesuvius
High Average - A Division - Craig Fairchild [Usetabe's] 25.54 ppg
High Average - B Division - Joe Peazel [Young Guns] 25.54 ppg
High Average - C Division - Ryan Adams [Sun Life Financial] 23.33 ppg
High Average - D Division - Mike Marbina [Gino's Auto Body] 22.71 ppg
High Average - AAA Division - Paul Weller [P.O.I.T.S.] 23.50 ppg
High Average - BBB Division - Todd Thorne [D.J.B.] 21.40 ppg
High Average - CCC Division - Jason Bray [CC Vesuvius] 20.36 ppg
5000 Point Club - No New Members This Year
2500 Point Club - John Mataya [Boner 44] 2580 pts
1000 Point Club - Andy Matthews [Usetabe's] 1194 pts
1000 Point Club - Chris Leaney [Not So Showtime] 1180 pts
1000 Point Club - Paul Weller [P.O.I.T.S.] 1139 pts
1000 Point Club - Steve Hudson [Rex Hotel] 1065 pts
1000 Point Club - Chris Dominey [Boner 44] 1035 pts
1000 Point Club - Brandon Mitruk [Olympians] 1001 pts
500 Club - No New Members This Year
John Doornekamp Memorial Award (ABA Single Game High Score) - Paul Weller [P.O.I.T.S.] 39 pts
N.B.A. Quarterly Report
Saturday, November 24, 2007
N.B.A. Press - Now that we've completed four weeks of the season (approximately 25% of the season's games), it's time to update the general population about what's been happening in the Niagara Basketball Association. Of course, first things first; our treasurer Gord Digout reports that the team registration fees have been dribbling in (bad pun) and we're in reasonably good shape financially. However, it usually ends up that the statistician gets to remind everyone that their team fees need to paid as soon as possible. (I don't know why, I'm not the biggest guy on the executive?!?!?)
We have a couple of team name changes since the start of the season. Tim Horton's, whose caffeine-addicted members have been bouncing around the league (another bad pun) for decades, recently acquired a new sponsor. The team looks great in their new gold-coloured uniforms sponsored by the Elbow Room, and have chosen the very original name of (ready for this...) Elbow Room-Gold. This is to differentiate them from another A.B.A.(over-35 team), the Elbow Room. The Classics, who started their existence as the CTAL Classics way back in the 1992-93 season, and became the Elbow Room Classics for the 2003-04 campaign are now known as the Signature Sign Classics. If you read the Welland Tribune, you'll notice that there's an A.B.A. team called CC's Dugout. CC's Dugout is actually the CC part of the team CC Vesuvius. For sponsorship reasons, the Tribune articles use the name CC's Dugout.
Actually that brings up another point that the statistician needs to work on this season. You'll notice that there are very few articles about the Niagara Basketball Association appearing in the Welland Tribune. The only teams to report their results to the Tribune over the past few years have been the A.B.A. Division teams (maybe because they have been doing it for decades). Going back fifteen years or so, there was a large weekly column in the sports section occupying a quarter of a page reporting our statistics. How do these reports get into the paper? I'm afraid that our games are not quite important enought for the Tribune to send out a reporter and/or photographer, so we have to report to them ourselves. Tradition has it that the winner of a game completes a Welland Tribune Summary sheet (see link below) and gets it to the Welland Tribune, either as a hard copy, fax or e-mail. (see the Player Stats tab for detailed instructions)
The reporters usually take a bit of journalistic license with our comments, but for the most part the articles represent what happened. Sometimes they are quite funny. The many teams that have commercial sponsors should be putting that sponsors' name in the newspaper as a form of advertising in exchange for their registration fees. If anyone wants help doing this for the first time, let me know and I'll do what I can to get you started.
Hopefully everyone was informed that the late games at Confederation now start at 9:00 PM instead of the originally advertised 9:10 PM. The caretaker seems to want to get things tidied up right after the game, so please don't lollygag in the shower or dressing room after the game.
I have finally found the bug in the 2007 Champions - Photo Gallery area of the website and am now in the process of publishing the pictures from last season's Year-End Stag and Awards Presentation. Scroll down this page and check out all of the new pictures. Since the Pelham Senior Citizen's club uses the Old Pelham Town Hall for its meetings, there is a big sign behind a number of the pictures that says "Senior Citizens". I guess this is a Freudian way to describe our A.B.A. players.
Things have been quiet on the communications front, so I'm assuming from that that everyone is reasonably happy with the way that things are transpiring this season. If anyone has any comments, please contact the executive.
Joe Seliske, N.B.A. Statistician
Click here to view the Official NBA Score Sheet for 2007-2008.
Click here to view the Official NBA Welland Tribune Summary Sheet for 2007-2008.
What's New in the Niagara Basketball Association for the 2007 - 2008 Season?
N.B.A. Press - For the 2007 - 2008 season, the N.B.A. Division has one more team overall than in 2006 - 2007. Two new teams have joined the league and one long-running team has failed to renew for the coming season. The new teams are the Gophers and Not So Showtime, while the team sponsored by Interlake Paper has come to an end due to a lack of players. Tier A again sports eight teams, but Tier B has been increased to nine teams. Since the skills of the players on new teams is always a question, both new teams have been seeded in Tier B.
Three N.B.A. teams have changed their names/sponsors for this season. M.J. Jones Inc. has reverted to their previous name of Young Guns. The Aqua Blue squad from Dunnville will now be know as Gino's Auto Body. Last but not least, Player's Peecocks now have the "handle" of the Flushers. (bad pun)
Despite some player movement, the old guys (A.B.A. Division - Over 35) still have nine teams for the 2007 - 2008 campaign. One slight name alteration is that the Elbow Room Classics will now be known simply as the Classics.
In the "Trying Something New" department; since B and C Tiers each have an odd number of teams, exhibition games have been set up without referees instead of teams having a bye week. Since the gym times are available, it was thought that the teams would prefer to scrimmage against a team that they are probably never going to meet in league play than have a night off. Tell us what you think.
Last but not least, the statistician has finally figured out how to post a copy of the league score sheet on the web page. Now there are no excuses for handing in scores on pieces of toilet paper or similar scraps. Just access the link below.
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Origin of the Niagara Basketball Association
The Niagara Basketball Association was organized in 1970, by Jack Randall with two teams and was intended
to provide a place for men who had left school and were looking for some exercise. The next year Jack Dockman became the Treasurer.
These two men have played in and run the league until 2004.
With the league having expanded to 30 teams, the association offers three levels of team play and covers areas in Welland, Port Colborne, Fonthill, Fort Erie, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Dunnville. Each team plays once a week for approximately 20 weeks.
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The N.B.A. History Project
Over the past 36 years, Jack Randall has kept meticulous records of every point, foul, win, loss and tie that occurred in each game where scoresheets were handed in. These statistics are published annually in the Statistical Yearbook distributed at the year-end Stag and Awards Presentation event. Jack has also kept detailed mental records of every player, their basketball career, where they came from, who they were friends with and an uncalculable number of funny stories about the league. Every year, when assembling the Statistical Yearbook, Jack tells me these stories as we cut and paste the newspaper articles and cartoons onto the worksheets.
It would be a shame if any of these stories were lost. A league such as ours, which has brought together so many people over four decades, needs to have the "human" side of its history recorded as well. The following PDF file has a number of questions designed to stimulate your memories. The idea is to get your recollective juices flowing and give you an opportunity to tell some of your own stories about teams you played for, people you played with and the countless humourous events that undoubtedly occured when a bunch of guys with similar interests gets together. If each and every player contributes even a couple of unique and interesting accounts that occurred while playing in the N.B.A. our history would be more complete. If you know anyone who no longer plays in the league, please give them a copy of the form or direct them to the website.
Perhaps by the 50th anniversary of the league, we'll have enough information to publish a book! So please.....PASS IT ON!!!
Click here to view the NBA History Questionnaire.
Stag and Awards Presentation a Hit at New Venue
NBA Press - The Annual NBA Stag and Awards Presentation was held at the Old Pelham Town Hall in Fenwick on Tuesday, May 8, 2007. Eighty-one athletes assembled to check out the Statistical Yearbooks, receive awards and consume mass quantities of fowl appendages, rectangular Italian pies and fermented beverages. League founders Jack Randall and Jack Dockman were on hand to take in the festivities. League statistician, Joe Seliske was busy distributing NBA History Questionnaires to all attendees (see article above).
Lucky winners of prizes donated by Molson's were Bernie Amyot (Millennium) and Roger Woolcott (Rex Hotel) who won carry bags, Rob Crnko (Olympians) and Gino Palermo (D.J.B.) who won cooler bags, and Gord Digout (Elbow Room Classics) and Rob Paul (Elbow Room) who won golf shirts.
Once again, the league executive would like to thank everyone who attended the event and participated in the league this season.
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N.B.A. Executive 2006-07
Doug Weeks, Commissioner (2nd from left)
Gord Digout, Treasurer (right)
Jason Bray, Scheduler (left)
Joe Seliske, Statistician( 2nd from right)
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![High Average - A Division - Mike Hurley [Balloon Knots] 32.67 ppg](Images New/IMG_8189B.jpg){kind=link}
![High Average - B Division - Ryan Adams [Sun Life Financial] 23.93 ppg](Images New/IMG_8191B.jpg){kind=link}
![5000 Point Club - John MacGregor [Timbro] 5034 pts](Images New/IMG_6937A.jpg){kind=link}
![1000 Point Club - Mike Hurley [Balloon Knots] 1206 pts](Images New/IMG_6943A.jpg){kind=link}
![High Average - A Division - Craig Fairchild [Usetabe's] 25.54 ppg](Images New/Craig Fairchild A 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![High Average - B Division - Joe Peazel [Young Guns] 25.54 ppg](Images New/Joe Peazel B 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![High Average - D Division - Mike Marbina [Gino's Auto Body] 22.71 ppg](Images New/Mike Marbina D 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![High Average - AAA Division - Paul Weller [P.O.I.T.S.] 23.50 ppg](Images New/Paul Weller AAA 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![High Average - BBB Division - Todd Thorne [D.J.B.] 21.40 ppg](Images New/Todd Thorne BBB 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![High Average - CCC Division - Jason Bray [CC Vesuvius] 20.36 ppg](Images New/Jay Bray CCC 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![1000 Point Club - Andy Matthews [Usetabe's] 1194 pts](Images New/Andy Matthews 1000 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![1000 Point Club - Paul Weller [P.O.I.T.S.] 1139 pts](Images New/Paul Weller 1000 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![1000 Point Club - Brandon Mitruk [Olympians] 1001 pts](Images New/Brandon Mitruk 1000 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
![John Doornekamp Memorial Award (ABA Single Game High Score) - Paul Weller [P.O.I.T.S.] 39 pts](Images New/Paul Weller ABA 2007-08.jpg){kind=link}
