It may only be a few days removed from the end of the summer season but “next season” is here already. This coming weekend is the kick off for aspiring New Brunswick elite athletes looking to play for BNB or Team Canada in the summer of 2010. The open tryouts for CP Atlantic are being held at UNB this Sunday (Sept. 13). Details are available on the BNB Web site.

For those following the results of team Canada at the FIBA America U16 tournaments you’re well aware that Canada Basketball has qualified for next year’s U17 World Championships. What this means is that at least two athletes (one female and one male) from Atlantic Canada are going to get an opportunity to represent our country at a world championships less than 12 months from now.

For the NB kids that are selected for CP, this represents a 1 in 30 chance. Pretty good odds if you ask me. Definitely much better than kids not in the program. This past summer the two Atlantic reps were Fergus Duke from Halifax and Vanessa Pickard of Riverview.Given the fact that Vanessa was in the main rotation on the ladies team while Fergus saw very little time for the men’s team, it’s not an unreasonable goal to think those two spots could be New Brunswick players.

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