Nguyen, 21, says he wouldn’t be playing pro if it weren’t for the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences’ Summer Weekend Inner-city Supervised Hoops (SWISH) program.

He joined the SWISH program when he was 15 years old and spent five summers honing his skills on the Bannatyne campus. At the start of September he wrapped up his first season playing guard with the Saigon Heat in the Vietnam Basketball Association (VBA).

Binh Nguyen takes a free throw while playing for the Saigon Heat in the Vietnam Basketball Association.

“The SWISH program played a major role in getting me to where I am today,” Nguyen said. “All the staff members at SWISH were all university basketball players, and some were also professional basketball players. They inspired me to have a passion for basketball and to take it as far as I could in my life.”

SWISH provides Winnipeg’s inner-city kids with the opportunity to play basketball in a supervised setting on Saturdays during the summer (the program hasn’t run the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.) The program is staffed by University of Manitoba Bisons and community basketball players, and former SWISH participants.  

After graduating from Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute, Nguyen played two seasons with the Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) Blazers. When the 2020-21 season was cancelled because of the pandemic, he started looking for opportunities around the world to continue playing the game he loves.

Nguyen, who immigrated to Canada from Vietnam when he was nine years old, found out that the VBA was looking for players with a Vietnamese background. He was eager to join the Saigon Heat because they had won back-to-back VBA championships.

“Having an opportunity to play professional basketball is every player’s dream, and I enjoyed every second of it,” Nguyen said. “Especially since I was also born and raised in Vietnam. It was a super cool thing to reconnect with my family there, as well as represent my hometown team.”

However, his team wasn’t able to defend its championship title. The season was cancelled during the first-round of playoffs because of the number of COVID-19 cases in Vietnam, Nguyen said. But he plans on returning to Vietnam for the 2022 season.

SWISH organizers are proud of what Nguyen has accomplished.

Karen Cook, co-lead, Office of Community Engagement, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, said she was thrilled when she heard he was going to be playing pro.

“I’m hopeful that our SWISH program had a small part in nurturing Binh’s love of the sport and honing his basketball skills,” Cook said. “We have always tried to recruit basketball mentors that are representative of the youth using the drop-in summer program and we hope Binh found SWISH staff and mentors valuable contributors to his basketball journey.”

Binh Nguyen (back row, second from left) and Xavier Smith (back row, sixth from left) with other SWISH staff members in parking lot E on the Bannatyne campus in 2019.

Xavier Smith, coordinator of the SWISH program and a former Bison men’s basketball player (from 2011 to 2013), said he is happy he had the chance to watch Nguyen grow and develop, not only as a basketball player, but as a person too.

“What Binh has accomplished is something that everyone dreams about,” Smith said. “The opportunity to play a game that you love is a dream come true.”

Prior to the pandemic in 2019, Nguyen became a SWISH staff member because he wanted to give back to his community and the program that helped him achieve his goal of playing university basketball.

“As a basketball player, being a SWISH staff member encouraged me to love the game even more, and it also helped me realize how basketball can bring the entire community together.”

Nguyen also wanted to help other kids fulfill their dreams too.

HOW IT STARTED: The program was inspired by a summer stroll past a sparsely filled parking lot on the Bannatyne campus. Dennis Bayomi, a U of M staff member in community health sciences and a volunteer with a community youth basketball team, saw the space’s potential as another venue for the neighbourhood’s youth to gather and share in their love of the sport. He told his idea to other staff members and it gained momentum. By June 2012, Parking Lot E was transformed into an outdoor basketball court. Bison athletes were hired as staff, volunteers came forward, and several community partners lent their support.

THE GOAL: To connect with young people at the Bannatyne campus while offering them a safe and fun place to participate in recreational activity.

THE REACH: Since its inception in 2012, SWISH has hosted more than 200 youth in Saturday pick-up basketball.

IN HER OWN WORDS: “The inspiration comes from the kids who are waiting each Saturday morning on their bikes, watching SWISH staff arrive, putting together basketball hoops and hauling equipment to the site,” says Karen Cook, a member of SWISH’s planning committee and project manager with the U of M’s department of community health sciences. “Sometimes at the end of the day, one or two kids will linger in the parking lot as staff dismantle and transport equipment back to adjacent buildings, moving the conversation from basketball and often asking, ‘What do you learn in these buildings?’ It is the development of real and positive relationships that is most rewarding.”

FUNDERS AND SUPPORTERS: The University of Manitoba Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry; and Basketball Manitoba. In-kind support is provided by the City of Winnipeg, Youth Agencies Alliance, University of Manitoba Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation, Bannatyne Parking Services, Physical Plant and Joe Doupe Recreation Centre.

LEARN MORE

• Summer Weekend Inner-City Supervised Hoops