MacEwan Athletics
As the Griffins men's basketball team works hard on the court to get ready for a new season, they spent some time earlier this week giving back.
Head coach Eric Magdanz took his squad to visit the Oak Hill Boys Ranch in Bon Accord, AB – a therapeutic campus that works with young people to facilitate development of supports and life skills – and they refurbished the outdoor basketball court.
Griffins players spent the day playing basketball and soccer with the boys, while painting the proper lines on their court. It was a rewarding experience for both sides.
"It's pretty amazing for them to see how blessed we are as student-athletes, to see the support we have from family, friends and the MacEwan community," said Griffins head coach Eric Magdanz. "For us, it's a great opportunity to give back and show the boys there that with a little hard work and determination, they can hopefully get some of those experiences in their life."
Former Griffins basketball player and current graduate assistant with the team, Lee Danderfer, facilitated the visit at Oak Hills, where he works as a child and youth care worker.
"It meant everything," said Danderfer, who graduated from MacEwan in 2015. "Those boys don't get a lot of positive male roles in their lives, so to have a full team of 18 guys, to see them laughing and joking with our boys, it was pretty awesome.
"Just to see how excited those kids were to spend time with them it was awesome. It was an amazing moment and it was hard not to get emotional actually."
He reports in the days since the court was repainted, that's the place the Oak Hills boys want to be.
"It was more just like a piece of asphalt, but now since we painted it, it's only been two days and every single time we do our check in about what we're going to do, the boys want to play basketball," said Danderfer.
"Kids that have never wanted to play basketball before, they want to play basketball. They want to play full court, use the out-of-bounds line, the three-point line."
The Griffins men's basketball team also volunteered on Thursday night at the Mustard Seed.
After the long weekend, they will continue preparations for the 2017-18 season. They will soon scrimmage against some local ACAC teams before kicking off the preseason Oct. 12-14 at a tournament in Waterloo, Ont.
