2023 has been a busy year for the Prairie Basketball League, and it’s far from over. 

The PBL has already run a winter league, a spring league, and an all-star weekend and League Commissioner Abram Razon says they will now be hosting both a summer basketball tournament and a youth camp called The Battlegrounds. 

“It's a camp for youth starting from ages 5 to 10, same divisions that we have with the Under-18 categories, but this time it's only going to be a three-day camp from Wednesday to Friday. We're going to have the top coaches, top trainers and scouts from the province and some even from Alberta and the states to come scout our kids.” 

Razon says registration for the camp is already closed because the demand was so high and there was limited gym space.  

The Battlegrounds camp with run next Wednesday to Friday, July 19th to 23rd and immediately after that the PBL will be hosting a Summer Basketball Tournament.  

“The summer tournament is more geared towards accommodating the teams that can't come here on a weekly basis for a Winter or a Spring League. So, we have a lot of teams coming from Winnipeg. We were hoping we get some from outside the province, but just because the spots filled up so fast that we weren't able to accommodate them. We're going to have 10 teams in total. Very, very strong teams overall." 

Razon says the tournament will be competing at the Open Elite Division level, which is their most competitive category. He says there will be one team representing Steinbach made up of members from three separate Open Elite Division teams.  

With some great basketball on the court, Razon says spectators are most definitely welcome. 

“That's going to be at the Steinbach Christian School. We're going to have food trucks out there as well for those of you who are interested. Let’s show them what Steinbach basketball is all about.” 

For exact times and dates, Razon says people can check out the Prairie Basketball League website. 

Finally, he notes “I just want to give a special shout out to all the volunteers. Aim High Basketball is our partner when it comes to training the kids here and just helping with the development of our youth.”