Team Insight

O h, for the good old days of 2019. Prior to the pandemic, basketball was enjoying steady growth, but once the crisis set in during 2020-2021 the game experienced a more than two percent dip in participation, according to the SFIA's 2022 Basketball Single Sport Report. But now, as COVID-19 gradually enters the endemic phase, basketball is poised to come back full force, particularly in high schools and at the youth level. e most recent NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey states that a total of 540,769 boys participated in basketball in 18,617 schools. For girls those numbers are 399,067 players and 18,210 schools. It is the third-most high school popular sport for both boys and girls. "We know the pandemic hurt not just par- ticipation, but the recruitment and retention of both quality officials and coaches. Building back participation in all three areas will be a focus of not just the NFHS, but our 51 member state associations," says Lindsey Atkinson, director of sports/communications at NFHS. "Anecdotally, we know the pandemic impacted junior varsity, freshman and middle school participation as healthy players were needed to fill varsity rosters. It will be important for the growth of the game and development of the student-athletes that sub-varsity competition is made a priority and stakeholders – coaches, officials, athletes, and spectators – find their way back to the game." Atkinson adds, "USA Basketball also plans to give a boost to youth basketball in the year ahead and to expand opportunities for women and people of color." "Our youth basketball initiatives continue to focus on coach education and training and to build upon our player development curriculum and ensure positive environments for play," explains Renee Felton, USA Basketball's head of communications. "In addition, we will expand USA Basketball youth clinics and camps, which highlight skill development to impart the fundamentals of the game at all levels. "Further, we will focus on the area of SafeSport to keep our athletes and other par- ticipants safe," Felton adds. "We are expanding Women in the Game and have launched the Torch Program designed to connect and mentor young people of color." Dealers Respond To Challenges Over the past couple of seasons, team dealers have been stymied by some major issues – most notably supply chain headaches, school closures and pandemic lockdowns – but as the situation improves they are generally optimistic about the future. eir biggest worry now is product availability. "I anticipate strong sales," says Rob Schneider, owner of Lansford, PA-based Valley Athletic Supply. "Since we've recovered from the COVID shutdown, business has been robust. But product availability will be a huge issue. We've been doing well, but the supply chain is a real challenge." Valley Athletic Supply primarily sells uni- forms and balls, but the supply problems are touching everything. "e issue has presented itself in bizarre ways," says Schneider, pointing out that when he tried to order black T-shirts, every distributor was out of size XL. "Baseball hats have also been particularly hard to obtain and lead times on getting custom caps have been exceedingly long," he adds, and basketballs (and footballs) have been tough to get. At Hoosier Sporting Goods in Columbus, IN, owner Michael Bodart is enthusiastic about the upcoming hoops campaign. "Last season was exceptional. We do lots of elementary and middle school uniforms and we're hopeful again this year," he says. While uniforms comprise the bulk of Bodart's business, he also sells some hardgoods and fanwear/spiritwear. Meanwhile, Greeley, CO-based Garretson's Sporting Goods doesn't ramp up its scholastic basketball business until the season starts, but it does handle leagues and clubs prior to that. "Uniforms are always on cycles for high school teams and we usually sell sets of uni- forms every three years or so. Teams will always be looking to buy new uniforms, but it depends on budgets and booster clubs," says owner Todd Garretson. Garretson's also sells hardgoods such as basketballs, nets, backboards and accessories such as scorebooks and he notes that warm-up shirts and shooting shirts are popular items as well. Garretson says the supply chain is not an issue yet since basketball goods don't usually arrive until mid-September. For Aaron Karsh, director of operations at California Pro Sports in Harbor City, CA, basketball isn't the biggest sport, but thankfully it seems to be on a normal timeline this year. "Uniforms aren't a big issue for us right now, but the availability of official balls is a big problem. Distributors either don't have them or won't sell them because they don't work through dealers," he explains. "We also sell Goalsetter All-American backboards and we want to sell domestically produced hardgoods since they're easier to obtain." Karsh hopes that supply chain issues won't affect deliveries, but he suspects that they will. teaminsightmag.com July/August 2022 ~ Team Insight • 31 BANK TEAM DEALERS ARE LOOKING TO BOOST THEIR HOOPS BUSINESS AS A FULL 2022-23 SEASON APPROACHES. BY JUDY LEAND SHOTS

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