Red Raiders look to the future

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Matt Orr is the new president of the Niagara Falls Red Raiders.

The new president of the Niagara Falls Red Raiders Basketball Association had a practical reason for stepping into the role.

“If there is no one there to do it it doesn’t get run,” Matt Orr said. “My (youngest) son is involved in basketball and I have been involved in basketball almost my whole life and I do it to coach the kids and make sure they have a place to play.”

The manager of the teaching greenhouse at Niagara College has been involved with the Red Raiders for many years. He coached his oldest son, Ethan, with the Red Raiders from novice to under-19 and is now coaching his 14-year-old son, Logan, since last year.

“He was a hockey player who turned to basketball. Beautiful,” Orr said. “I want to coach him until he is done.”

Orr replaces Jamie Clarke as president of the Niagara Falls Red Raiders after serving as a director two years ago and vice-president in 2023.

The former Stamford Collegiate player started in basketball with the Niagara Falls Minor Basketball Association, the association that pre-dated the Red Raiders.

Orr is part of a new wave of people joining the Red Raiders executive and helping to fill the void of valued departing members such as long-time registrar Andrea Wiggins.

The executive is now made up of: Orr; Jerry Naccarato, tournament convenor; Nicole Clarke, registrar; Caleb Smith, gym convenor; Charlie Smith, athletic director; Jay Lennox, director; Will Jensen, treasurer; Barb Jones, house league convenor; Herdy Christian, vice-president; Jamie Clarke, past president; Mark Federinko, uniform convenor; and, Vic (Rajiv) Kosha, director.

Naccarato, Nicole Clarke, Caleb Smith and Charlie Smith are all new to the board.

The board is looking forward to helping the organization grow and move forward.

“I don’t think we need to do a complete overall but we definitely need to update what we are doing,” said Orr, adding he is not sure what exactly the priorities are yet.

“The Red Raiders has always been a great organization to provide basketball to Niagara Falls youth in some capacity. I know we have had a reduction of numbers in the past couple of years and Pelham does an amazing job of attracting the talent.”

Orr met with Pelham Panthers executives Brian Bleich and Mike Hurley Wednesday night asking for their advice and help.

“Basketball in the Niagara region needs to grow a little more, we need to work as a team and basketball families need to come together to have a meeting of the minds. We want to learn what Pelham is doing to give them its success.”

The Red Raiders has space for 84 male and 84 female bantam and atom house league players.

“We probably won’t get there with the females unfortunately but we probably will for the males,” Orr said.

The association also has 12 travel teams, 10 boys team and under-13 and under-15 girls teams. The boys teams run from under-10 to under-19.

“I want to attract more girls to play even on our house league side,” he said. “We have 30 girls in the whole city of Niagara Falls who want to play basketball and that needs to be a lot better. We used to be full. I know there is competition from other things but I would rather them play basketball.”

Orr has lots of goals for the Red Raiders.

“I would like to see the numbers grow, I would like to see a partnership with the city in some respect and I would like to see us as an organization that has more of a footprint in Niagara Falls. I have no idea what that looks like but we are going to do our best.”

The Red Raiders’ house league teams play out of Princess Margaret — the association donated $100,000 to the District School Board of Niagara to upgrade the gym — and the travel squads play out of A.N. Myer, Stamford, Saint Paul and the MacBain Community Centre.

The Red Raiders are still taking registration for house and travel league players at www.nfredraiders.com. Anyone wanting to volunteer with the association can contact Orr at 905-933-6743.


    

Bernie Puchalski, a graduate of Brock University and Niagara College, worked in journalism in Niagara for more than 27 years before taking a voluntary buyout from The Standard at the end of 2016. He started his career as a news reporter for the Niagara Falls Review before switching to sports reporting. He was a sports reporter and sports editor at the Niagara Falls Review before joining the Standard's sports department in 1996. He was named the Standard's sports editor in 2000 and became the regional sports editor, in charge of the Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and Standard, in 2015, a position he held until he left the company. During his time in newspapers, he was a multiple winner and finalist for numerous Ontario and Western Ontario Newspaper Awards for sports reporting, spot news reporting and humour writing. He was a member of the Standard Boys Basketball Tournament committee and co-chair of the Standard Girls Basketball Tournament, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for bursaries presented to participants in the tournament. He also served on countless local sports committees both in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.