Backyard Basketball Academy

Location: Leduc, Alberta & South Edmonton, Alberta

Vision: Backyard Basketball Academy Inc. is a grassroots initiative created to inspire our community of young athletes and build a lifelong connection to sport. We are committed to providing a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment for athletes to strive for excellence and become better versions of themselves. We are humbled by our responsibility to our community and work to provide opportunity for all youth to play basketball without limitation or barriers. We show up to lead and serve with courage and compassion, to work hard at improving our whole selves, and to contribute to a meaningful work in the lives of our athletes.

Mission: To provide quality coaching and play a significant role in the skill and character development of our next generation of athletes.To empower our athletes and create space to learn, grow, and build confidence so that together we can accomplish incredible things on and off the court.

Core Values:

Have Fun on Purpose.

Treat everyone with dignity and respect, be kind to everyone we encounter.

Commit to ongoing excellence and develop. our diverse talents, initiative, and leadership.

Act with uncompromising honesty and integrity in all that we do.

Provide quality programming to all in our community and limit barriers for participation.

Meet the Coaches

Amber McKay

Amber is a proud wife, 3x mother and experienced leader. She played, coached, and studied basketball as a young adult. Growing a love for the game early on, she pursued Kinesiology- Coaching and Sport Performance and is passionate about teaching, coaching and investing in young athletes. She has coached ages 5-18yrs with multiple teams and organizations over the years and is so excited to provide quality programming for our athletes!

Dylan McKay

Dylan is a devoted husband & father who developed a love for sport at a young age. Playing both hockey and volley ball at an elite level as an adult, he is now transitioning to provide more quality opportunities for our youth to develop a positive relationship for sport in a coaching role.

How It Started

When I, (Amber) completed high school I received a scholarship to attend Red Deer College and studied Kinesiology. My scholarship was earned because of the impact that I wanted to make as a coach. I’ve loved basketball for as long as I can remember and was fortunate enough to have been led by incredible coaches that showed me the value of being a part of a team, how to earn confidence and strive for my potential. It has always been an intention of mine to contribute in a meaningful way to basketball in some capacity, I just didn’t know how it would all come together while pursuing our careers and navigating parenthood to 3 young children.  Dylan and I took time to pause and ask ourselves “If we had unlimited resources, how would we want to invest our time and energy?” For both of us, the answer was impacting young athletes in sport. From there we addressed all of the things in our lives that contributed to our own limiting beliefs and started where we were at, with what we had. We started to explore all of our options where starting Backyard Basketball and working with the Jr. NBA became obvious as our values paralleled so well and for the first time in our lives our work and ambition completely lined up with our vision and purpose.

Why it's so important for kids to play sport

Participation in sports teaches kids so many valuable skills and lessons that I believe contribute to the way that a child sees themselves in the world. It is so important to develop a child’s physical literacy because it helps our young athletes early on understand to value and take responsibility for the engagement in physical activities for life. Challenging a child through sport helps them build a framework to develop confidence, resiliency, and self-respect. It teaches our kids how to accept and receive feedback, be coached in difficult moments, and manage strong emotions. While maybe, these skills can be developed through alternative experiences, when they are taught through sport, our young athletes learn to grow in these areas while having fun and building strong relationships with their teams, coaches and community.

How We Joined the Jr. NBA Youth Basketball program

Our interest started at the same time while we looked to start Backyard Basketball. We decided that if we were going to make the decision to launch our organization and provide quality programs for our community, we needed to partner with an organization that reflected our values and ambitions. After reviewing everything that the Jr. NBA represents, promotes and the way that they develop athletes, we knew that earning a partnership with the Jr. NBA would bring so much value and credibility to our organization so that we can wholeheartedly serve our community.

The impact of the Jr. NBA Youth Basketball program on the Community

We run our Jr. NBA program in Leduc, Alberta and South Edmonton, Alberta. We launched in September of 2021, only running 1.5 seasons so far but the Jr. NBA program has impacted our communities greatly. Offering basketball programs for ages 5-6 ears is important because there are not many options for participation at that age group which is very positive. For our older age groups (7-9 years & 10-12 years) our community greatly appreciates the opportunity for these athletes to work on the fundamental skills of basketball in a fun, supportive and encouraging environment, many of them looking to play on a team in the future so taking the time to go through each skill and how to put those skills together is a big deal for our community.

Favourite feature of the Jr. NBA Youth Basketball program

I would say our athletes’ favourite feature is receiving a Jr. NBA branded jersey and basketball as part of their player packages. For myself though, the greatest feature is the coach development opportunities and the Jr. NBA curriculum. We have so much confidence going into each practice with a strong, proven framework to help develop our athletes, have fun and be present with our athletes at each practice.

Meaningful Story about the program

What has been most meaningful to us has been witnessing so many of our athletes’ progress inso many ways. We have had a large group of players that have struggled returning to play experiencing strong emotions of discouragement, anxiety, and depression. Over the last few months that we have offered the Jr.  NBA program, we have seen progression in our athletes. To each individual this has meant so many different things; some regaining confidence, some learning to be patient with themselves, some learning and enjoying the process of learning new skills, and for all being excited and looking forward practice each week. In such a short period of time we have had so many notable accomplishments; a handful of our athletes made their school teams after being cut previously or never playing before, players that can catch the ball without fear, athletes that couldn’t hit the rim are now making shots, children that had a hard time focusing in our practices that are more engaged than ever. We have had many of our athletes learn to accept that getting better is a process, mistakes are crucial to their development and we can have fun during those times. All big wins for us and our players

The Future of Backyard Basketball

We are committed to continuing to grow the game through our Jr. NBA Youth Basketball program. It is the best way to introduce and develop life and basketball skills for young athletes. We see our registrations continuing to grow from season to season, higher participation in young female athletes, and a safe space for our athletes to have fun and learn new skills. We see the quality of our organization and our programs becoming a trusted pillar in our community for years to come.

A message to others looking to join the Jr. NBA Youth Basketball Program

Being a part of the Jr. NBA program has been one of the best decisions we have ever made to contribute to our community in a positive way. The amount of support we have received from Canada Basketball, the Jr. NBA and Alberta Basketball Association has been beyond what we would have ever expected. The culture and relationships we have been able to create within our community is so meaningful and has been worth every challenge and trade off we have made to make our vision a reality. If you are looking to make a difference for young athletes, you are passionate about growing the game in your community, and you believe in what the Jr. NBA represents, then make it happen because these athletes need this program!  

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