The Summer Weekend Inner-city Supervised Hoops (SWISH) program took place on Saturdays from July 8 to Aug. 19 after being postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The free program, led by the Office of Community Engagement in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, gives inner-city kids a place to play basketball in a supervised setting.

Because SWISH hadn’t been held since 2019, organizers were unsure how many kids would show up. It turned out to be more popular than ever.

“The numbers have been up, which is incredible,” said Karen Cook, co-lead, Office of Community Engagement at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. “We had 40 kids show up for the first Saturday and a record-setting 67 kids during the second Saturday. This speaks volumes to the amount of work we collectively put into the program.”

Cook said they’ve also seen an increase in the number of Indigenous kids taking part in SWISH. She attributes this to the work that SWISH staff member Crystal Wiegner has been doing to promote the program in the Indigenous community.

“Crystal has been instrumental in promoting this Rady Faculty program through her networks,” Cook said. “It’s great to see so many Indigenous kids taking part.”

Xavier Smith, coordinator of the SWISH program and a former UM Bison men’s basketball player from 2011 to 2013, said it’s amazing to be back for SWISH’s 10^th summer.  

“It’s great for the community, the kids and the inner city. That’s the whole focus,” Smith said.  

Nathan Gauthier

Nathan Gauthier, who is going into Grade 11, attended SWISH this summer to improve his basketball skills to become the best player he can be.

“It’s fun and competitive,” Gauthier said. “It’s good to meet different people from all over the city.”

Binh Nguyen, who played basketball for the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers and professionally with the Saigon Heat in the Vietnam Basketball Association, started off just like Gauthier. He spent five summers shooting hoops on the Bannatyne campus and is now one of eight SWISH staff members, who include UM Bisons, community basketball players and former SWISH participants.

“There were a lot of role models I looked up to when I came to SWISH and they taught me how to play basketball,” Nguyen said. “Now I’m in that role and lead by example. I get to teach them the game of basketball and get the kids to build relationships with each other. I think that’s the most important thing.”

While the main goal is for the kids to have fun, Smith said he loves seeing SWISH participants like Nguyen pursuing basketball at the next level.

Ez Roberts

“That’s just the cherry on top,” Smith said. “I love that.”

Ez Roberts, who is heading into Grade 11, attended SWISH this summer to learn new skills to help him become a starter on his high school’s basketball team.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Roberts said. “I like what the guys here are doing – giving out awards to kids who just come out to play basketball.”

SWISH partners include Basketball Manitoba, City of Winnipeg, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, Joe Doupe Recreation Centre, UM Parking Services, UM Security Services and UM Physical Plant.

The  Office of Community Engagement in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences has sent Rady Faculty students to northern communities since 2014 to share their knowledge of their respective health professions and passion for science and health care.

Biomedical Youth Program (BYP) Northern Camp participants learn how to use a stethoscope.

Andrea Soriano, a second-year medical student in the Max Rady College of Medicine, was one of the three students who volunteered to visit Opaskwayak Cree Nation this summer to lead activities related to the health sciences. The kids, ranging in age from 13 to 17, had the opportunity to dissect pig hearts, learn how to properly use a stethoscope, participate in an intubation simulation and play games related to the periodic table.

Soriano said the camp – that took place from July 23-25 – was not only a great exposure to something new for the students.

“I learned a lot about the community,” she said. “I’ve never been up North and I had not been on a reserve before. I learned a lot about how things work on the reserve and the great sense of community.”

This was second-year medical student Francis Diaz’s second BYP Northern Camp. He said that participating in the camp has helped him better understand Indigenous issues.

“I felt that after this experience, my passion for Indigenous issues grew more because you see these kids and you hear about their stories,” he said. “They’re amazing kids, but the systems around them are just preventing them from succeeding and reaching their potential.”  

And Soriano and Diaz saw plenty of potential. There were a couple of the kids that did an exceptional job during the pig heart dissection, Soriano said.

“We told them ‘you have good hands. We see a future for you in health care.’ So they were really happy about that. They were smiling, and they seemed really encouraged to hear that,” Soriano said.

Karen Cook, co-lead, Office of Community Engagement, said they hand out lab coats to the kids to add to the unique experience.

The Biomedical Youth Program (BYP) Northern Camp participants ranged in age from 13 to 17 years old.

“The kids feel like, ‘now I’m different this week. I’m going to do something that’s out of my comfort zone or something that’s related to science and health.’ It just puts them in a different context,” Cook said.

Diaz said the camp is important because it exposes young people to the health sciences.

“It goes back to the idea that you cannot be what you cannot see,” Diaz said. “So just getting these youth involved in the activities they will start to see that maybe science is for me, or maybe medicine is for me. It just plants that seed in the back of their mind.”

Camp runs for four-and-a-half-hour each day, allowing Cook to organize opportunities in the free time for the university students to shadow health-care professionals in the communities they visit.

Cook said it’s important for Rady Faculty of Health Sciences students to experience life in communities that might not have an occupational therapist, physical therapist or a doctor, and for them to imagine what it would be like without access to those services.

“It is definitely a learning experience for our students,” Cook said. 

SWISH gives inner-city kids a place to play basketball in a supervised setting every Saturday throughout the summer. Parking lot E on the Bannatyne campus is converted into basketball courts and the free-drop-in run by the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences Office of Community Engagement is staffed by U of M Bison and community basketball players, and former SWISH participants.

One of those university players is Brittanie Parisien. She’s in her fourth season with the University of Manitoba Bison women’s basketball team and she took part in SWISH sessions when she was growing up. The six-hour drop-in gave her a place to play basketball during the summer break and receive valuable tips from the student-athlete staff members.

Basketball takes over parking lot E on the Bannatyne campus during the summer.

“I was so happy to start working here,” said Parisien, who is in her second year as a SWISH staff member. “I can tell these kids that I played out here just like them, and now I play for a university team.”

Binh Nguyen is another SWISH staff member who went from shooting hoops in parking lot E to playing at a much higher level. He’s entering his second season with the Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) Blazers men’s basketball team.

Binh said he was taught a lot by the staff members when he was a kid. “I learned that the main thing is to work hard,” said Nguyen, a psychology student. “The way to get better is to work hard.”

One of the staff members who helped instill that work ethic in Nguyen is Xavier Smith. The former Bison men’s basketball player (from 2011-2013) is now the coordinator of the SWISH program. He started as a staff member when SWISH began in 2012.

“SWISH is a safe place not only to play basketball but to interact with positive people like Brittanie and Binh, and learn how they got to where they are right now,” Smith said. “I think that’s huge for the kids.”

The six-hour drop-in takes place on Saturdays in July and August.

Camille Mendoza, a Grade 12 student attending SWISH, said she’s inspired by Parisien and Nguyen.

“Binh went to my high school and he came to SWISH regularly,” she said. “Seeing him play for CMU now is really encouraging for myself because I’m going into university soon. And Brittanie used to go to Garden City and now plays for U of M so it’s nice to have people around you like that to show you where to go and how to get there.”

Karen Cook, co-lead, Office of Community Engagement, said that seeing the kids succeed is encouraging.

“In the beginning, when it was a new program, we weren’t sure of the impact SWISH would have,” Cook said. “Then eight seasons later, to see kids going on to play university basketball, it is super rewarding to know they’ve stayed with the program and I think that speaks to the level of impact we’ve had on some of these kids’ lives.”

The program ran Saturdays in July and August. On average, 35 kids showed up to shoot hoops each session this summer, which Smith said is five more kids at each drop-in than last year. “I think that’s amazing,” Smith said. “It’s telling us that people are talking and the word is getting around.”

SWISH partners include Basketball Manitoba, City of Winnipeg, Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, Joe Doupe Recreation Centre, U of M Parking Services, U of M Security Services and U of M Physical Plant.