Ottawa pro basketball player credits his neighbourhood for his success. Now he’s giving back | CBC News

A local professional basketball player who plies his trade in Europe these days has spent part of the summer back in Ottawa to give back to the community that helped him in his career and life.

Johnny Berhanemeskel, 30, grew up in the city’s Jasmine Crescent neighbourhood, played high school ball at Lester B. Pearson and went on to bring a provincial championship home for the University of Ottawa.

He’s been playing professionally since 2015, mostly in Europe, after signing his first contact to play in Estonia. He currently plays for BC Budivelnyk in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Now he’s back in the city, and has been passing on his knowledge of the game to kids ages nine to 16 at a summer basketball camp. It was held on his old high school stomping grounds from July 4-14.

“Being an Ottawa guy my whole life, the support I received is probably number one,” Berhanemeskel said.

“I knew that when I got into that position down the road, I would love to return the favour.”

Berhanemeskel invited Catherine Traer, a member of Canada’s national three-on-three women’s team from Chelsea, Que., and Marial Shayok, another local who was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019 and now plays in the NBA G-League, to share their knowledge, too.

Building skills

The kids taking part in the camp said they learned a lot about the game they love.

Aliana Simmie, who is Berhanemeskel’s niece, said she was having a great time while working on getting better at using her left hand.

“I find that I’m improving every day,” she said.

Keenan Wallace, who plays at St. Patrick High School, said he was learning a lot in drills. He knew what he wanted to get better at before arriving.

“Coming into this camp, I wanted to work on handles because previously I fell off on them,” he said. Handles is a word used to describe a player’s ball-handling and dribbling prowess.

Wallace also wants to be a better player overall.

Hopes to make camp an annual event

The children weren’t the only ones learning something.

“It’s opened my eyes, being here this week just learning about kids,” Berhanemeskel said.

“They didn’t know each other on Monday, everyone was a little more timid at the start of the week. And now they’re coming in the gym, encouraging each other, helping each other out.”

Growing up, Berhanemeskel said there weren’t many opportunities for him and his friends to get into a gym in the summer. They had to make do with what they had.

“We’d make sure we got to the courts early in the morning before that sun came out … we used to put shopping carts out there for cones and do drills,” he recalled.

“We found a way to be around the game.”

It’s because of his journey that Berhanemeskel wants to make this camp an annual event.

“I know that there’s something to do here and there’s something that to build off of from this experience,” he said.

“I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon, and I want to make it a fun experience for the community, making it an affordable, cost-friendly place where kids can come in and have a good time and just talk life, hoops.”