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Scott Reeves, head coach of the TRU WolfPack women's basketball team, always laughs when he tells the story.

He and his wife, Tara, were walking down a Whistler street a few years back, when a very tall, very beautiful woman walked past.

Like most men, Reeves couldn't take his eyes off her.

Tara, instead of getting offended, figured it out right away — Reeves was looking for a recruit.

“She just hits me and says, ‘You're just wondering if she's got a daughter, right?' ” he says, with a laugh.

That's the way it is with Reeves — basketball transcends almost everything in his life.

When he's not spending fall, winter and much of his spring working with the WolfPack, he's working with high school teams or regional teams or the Kamloops Basketball Academy, something he and TRU assistant Chuck Ferguson started in 2007.

For 365 days a year, Reeves lives basketball.

“Basketball is pretty much my life,” says Reeves, who came to the WolfPack in 2006 after coaching at Langley's Brookswood Secondary. “I've taken maybe two weeks of holidays since I've had the job.”

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The KBA finished its fourth year on Wednesday, wrapping up 10 weeks of practices for 100 or so players.

Reeves was pleased to get 30 players the first year — it was only for Grades 6-12 in 2007 — and is especially pleased at its expansion.

“It was borne out of wanting to develop basketball in the community,” Reeves explains. “This was based on developing skills, making better basketball players, intelligent basketball players, skilled basketball players.”

Although Kamloops does have club teams and Basketball B.C.'s Y Steve Nash program for children in Grades 4-7, the KBA is different — it's much more practice-oriented than clubs and a lot more serious than the Nash program.

“The academy won't be for some people,” Reeves says. “Some kids will come and say, ‘I just wanted to goof around.' That kid should have somewhere to go.

“I think we need things like (the Steve Nash program). I think providing as much opportunity for kids in whatever avenue is how everyone can be successful.”

But those who do show up gain a variety of skills that likely will prepare them for games better than just hanging around a gym.

“I can play against other people whenever,” says Taiysa Worsfold, a Sa-Hali Sabres senior and a four-year veteran of the KBA. “But here, we focus on the skills — the passing and the dribbling, which is key in becoming a better player.”

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Reeves trains four different age groups — kindergarten to Grade 2, Grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 — with help from some of his TRU players.

All three of his children are involved — Mckenna, 7, was in the K-2 class this past season, while son Josh, 12, trained with the 3-5 group and Kanesha, 13, practised with the 9-12 group.

The youngest two age groups, which only train once a week, feature both boys and girls. The older groups are specifically for female players.

The training for the youngest players consists of the essentials, and not much more. The older groups — 6-8 and 9-12 — practise twice a week, 90 minutes each. Reeves starts to introduce certain strategic elements and philosophy into training in the 6-8 group, but there also is a lot of skill development.

“I'm providing specialized training, providing concepts that are right in line with our national team programs,” he says. “This is what influences me, talking to (national women's team head coach) Allison McNeill and figuring out what kids in Canada aren't learning, then teaching that to kids in Kamloops.”

One of those things is encouraging the players to become leaders and show creativity, by allowing them to add special skills to certain drills.

“That's what was lacking in Canadian women's basketball,” he says. “Coaches would tell the girls to do a drill, and all they would do is that drill the way the coaches wanted them to do it.

“I like to give them the opportunity to start thinking more creatively.”

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Girls basketball in Kamloops has done well the last few years, and a lot of people point to the KBA as a reason.

The South Kamloops Titans junior girls won the 2010 provincial title — Reeves is a coach on the team — a year after the Sabres won B.C.'s Grade 8 title.

The Sabres senior girls, meanwhile, finished fifth in the province in February, and boast one of the top players in the province in Worsfold, who will be going into Grade 12 in the fall.

Worsfold has been playing for the provincial U17 squad. She is a member of the KBA, and has been since 2007, when she was in Grade 8.

“It can be difficult to motivate yourself, if you have to go out on your own,” she says. “It's made me a better player.”

Emma Wolfram, a KBA student and South Kam player, plays on the provincial U17 squad alongside Worsfold, while Nicole Karstein, Worsfold's KBA and Sa-Hali teammate, is on the U16 team. Maya Olynyk, another KBA player and South Kam junior, made the provincial U15 team.

On top of that, six of Reeves's KBA players will play for him on the regional team for the B.C. Summer Games, scheduled for July 22-25 in Langley — Kanesha, Emily Vilac, Ashley Lamoureux, Anna Frenkel, Emma Piggin and Reiko Ohama.

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The academy is catching on, not only with athletes — Reeves has been contacted by Jeff Speedy of the U of New Brunswick Varsity Reds and Regina Cougars head coach Dave Taylor about the possibility of setting up similar academies.

Speedy is trying to avoid losing elementary and middle school girls to other sports.

“I wanted to create a program that captures these young players . . . get them involved in basketball for the fun of it, teach them some skills and hopefully allow them to have some success at the same time,” Speedy wrote in an email.

Speedy, who held Reeves's position with the UCC Sun Demons from 1994 to 2002, started a Junior VReds club program this year, with 34 players signed up. He hopes to add an academy component somewhere down the road.

“I am also — and people from Kamloops can attest to this from my eight years there — big on giving back to the community. A program such as the basketball academy does just that,” Speedy wrote. “(Fredericton is) a city of 58,000 and (we) have dreams of our CIS women's basketball team being able to compete nationally, as I am sure Scott does as well. We need to elevate the level of play here in the city to help us reach this goal.”

Local coaches have even come out to the practices to pick up tips — Jennifer Morrison of Lloyd George Elementary was out this spring, and Sa-Hali senior boys head coach Paul Patterson took in some practices last year.

But Reeves is most pleased with the success that the KBA's students have had, and hopes that it's just the tip of the iceberg.

“I think this is one of the reasons why this area is starting to have more success,” he says. “Hopefully it continues.”

In Reeves' opinion, the more children who take part in basketball, the better it is for the sports community.

And while he has some professional interest in the KBA — it's no secret that he would love to help create a few prospects for his future WolfPack squads — he's really just into developing players to move on to the college or beyond.

One of those players is Erika Gardham, a former Brocklehurst Broncs guard who has signed on to play for the Camosun College Chargers next season. Reeves and Ferguson were the ones who put Camosun head coach Brett Westcott in touch with Gardham, a KBA grad.

It's just one of the payoffs that Reeves gets out of all his work.

“We want to get (players) ready for the next level,” he says. “It's unbelievable, it's been really good.”

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca