Tremendous Turnout For Team Alberta Tryouts

Braving some of the coldest temperatures in years, hundreds of aspirational athletes showed up in Calgary and Edmonton earlier this month at open regional tryouts for the Alberta Basketball Association (ABA) 2024 provincial teams.

Tryouts for the ABA 15U Boys, 15U Girls, 17U Boys and 17U Girls teams were held at Mount Royal University and Western Canada High School in Calgary as well as the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton. A combined total of nearly 500 youth took part, representing an increase of almost 10% from last year.

“It was really reaffirming to us to have those kinds of numbers show up when people could have easily said, ‘it’s too cold, I'm not going to go,’” says Dave Drabiuk, ABA Executive Director. “I think it speaks to the commitment to the program and people wanting to be part of it.”

Select athletes from the open tryouts have been invited to attend the Top 40 assessment sessions on April 6 at locations to be announced. That will be followed by the Top 25 assessment sessions in late April.

Fifteen athletes will be named to each of ABA’s four provincial teams which will compete at the 2024 Canada Basketball National Championships this August in Newfoundland & Labrador (15U and 17U Girls) and Ontario (15U and 17U Boys).

At the 2023 National Championships, every ABA team had a Top 5 finish, highlighted by silver medal performances from both the U17 Boys and U17 Girls.

“I think we have a legitimate chance to podium with all four of these provincial teams this summer,” Drabiuk says. “We showed it last summer.”

Visit the 2024 Team Alberta page for further information about ABA’s provincial team programming and a complete list of athletes invited to the Top 40 assessment sessions.