For Tammy and Arthur Ryan, giving back to the community has been their unwavering commitment to volunteering for Brantford’s CYO girls’ and boys’ basketball programs.
Arthur Ryan, who continues to be an executive member after years of being the Brantford CYO Boys Basketball president, traced his involvement with the program as a youth.
“When I was around seven-years-old, I played basketball for Brantford CYO Boys Basketball, and I was in the house league. I did a few years in rep…after that, the program didn’t have a high school league. So back around 1987, I decided to become a basketball official. And then when my daughter started playing rep, and my son got a little older, I got involved with the programs more and started helping out where I could,” he said. “The main thing is giving kids the opportunity to play [and] making sure things are affordable and accessible and that kids. These programs give them a chance to have fun while being supervised and provide an outlet for them, not alone from a physical sense, but from a social sense, where they could develop friendships and learn how to get along with others.”
Tammy Ryan, who is the current president of the Brantford CYO Girls Basketball program, recalled volunteering and helping it grow.
“I didn’t grow up playing basketball like Arthur…but joined the organization because of my daughter, who was in it…at the time, Jen Nagy was overtaking the organization to bring it back up to speed. So, I offered my assistance, and then with that, our executive board grew, and I eventually became president,” she said. “Although the boys and girls CYO are separate programs…we still hold the same values…like making sure that we’re in the community… and making the program accessible and [in our case] making sure that money doesn’t stand in the way of girls playing basketball…and we’ve grown it into a very competitive program. We have a lot of our teams that are in top 10s, and the girl’s program is always in the provincial championships.”
For Arthur Ryan, it was using social media to appeal to the community about the benefits of the CYO program.
“I was very big on making the program available to anyone in the greater Brantford area [and showing that] through our social media like Facebook or Instagram, and trying to be active online. We wanted to show that the program…whether it be playing for an hour or being involved in a rep program [that] basketball can not only be a fun athletic event, but also an opportunity to provide life lessons and the sense of belonging [while] working as a team [and] taking instruction,” he stated.
However, Arthur Ryan revels in several major highlights during his time as president for the Brantford CYO Boys Basketball program from 2015 to 2020.
“I’m very proud of the Courtside with The Raptors [initiative which] allowed teams to do fundraising there to keep the costs down and allow them to participate with the CYO, and whether it be in additional tournaments with the funds or pay out their fees….another highlight for me is running our referee apprentice program [which] provided kids with training. At the end of the day, many of the boys are not going to go to the next level of basketball, but having a referee program and mentorship program with a local refereeing board provides them an opportunity to still be involved in basketball as they get older,” explained Arthur.
Tammy went on to discuss the referee program for the girls’ CYO.
“We provide a training session for them at the beginning of every house league that are that are eligible at 12 years and up. What we do is we allow them to take that training in conjunction with the referee’s association that they come in and do the training. We then put that training back into our house league [and] transition them into that as far as refereeing the games,” Tammy explained. “Our daughter Maddy was one of the board’s first official referees when she started when she was 13-years-old, and that was through being mentored by the late Jim Chmiel…she’s actually started reffing novice games for them as an actual paid official. It’s making them understand the game more. It helps in their own game.”
Nevertheless, Arthur Ryan, who has also been involved as coach and a referee over the years, sees other people’s passion for the program too.
“One of the things that has always resonated with me are the people that come back to volunteer. This year, for instance…we had a young fellow named Joe O’Grady step up to be a rep coach for one of our high school teams and just six or seven years ago, he was playing for us there for the Brantford Hawks,” Arthur said. “So, these people, they want to give back…they believe in the program [and] their values align with ours,’ he noted. “We’ve also had several other people here from a refereeing perspective that are involved…there’s a young man who was a referee at the city finals this year named Ethan Andrew. He started refereeing in our house league, and over the years, he got on the panel, and he’s become an outstanding young official.”
Tammy Ryan addressed the support of the community, especially the parents.
“Our parents understand that we are all volunteers, and we always are doing the best that we can. They truly understand that we have their daughter’s best interests at heart, and the decisions that we make and the coaches that we put forth are all here for the betterment of the community and for our program,” she explained.
Arthur Ryan explained the importance of its volunteers and one of the main reasons that the programs continue to thrive.
“It all starts off with our volunteers. Without good volunteers, we can’t run a single thing. We have been very fortunate that people have stepped up to coach in the house league [and] our rep teams. And I can’t give those people enough credit for what they do…at the end of the day, without the volunteers at every level of these organizations…we wouldn’t be able to run these programs at all,” said Arthur.
