The Northern Bounce basketball club has provided a place for youth to train and build their skills, without having to relocate in order to receive advanced coaching.

Jordan Yu, owner and founder of Northern Bounce, started the club in 2017 after noticing a difference in the level of play of youth players from the Lower Mainland, compared to players in Prince George. To tackle this issue and close the gap on ability, Northern Bounce provides a variety of training camps for beginners to elite athletes who want to take their game to a new level.

"A big part of starting Northern Bounce was developing our players throughout the year so that our high school leagues got better," said Yu. The challenge for us was to travel down to the Lower Mainland and play great teams and players...that's the way to get better in this sport."

Yu said he has seen a major improvement in local high school teams' play over the last four years.

While running the program through the pandemic has forced the staff and team to adapt and change their training methods, Yu also said there are some positive outcomes to take from this time.

"A benefit of this is that it's taught everyone to get in the gym and train, without any games...there's no immediate reward for the players and it has built resilience in them," said Yu.

After spending fifteen years in Vancouver, during his time as an athlete and later a coach with both Capilano University and the UBC Thunderbirds, Yu returned to Prince George to raise his family and start Northern Bounce.

Listen to the full interview at CFUR-FM: