New To Basketball Information Page


👋 Welcome New Rockets Families

If you’re new to basketball or to Rockets Basketball — you’re in the right place! Below is everything you need to know to get started and have a great season.


📝 Register Early

  • Fall/Winter Club Season: Registration opens after Canada Day and closes early September. Our Groups fill up fast, some groups fill up in only a few days. 

  • Spring 3x3: Registration opens in February, starts late March/early April (8-10 weeks).

  • Summer Teams: Competitive tryouts in late Jan/early Feb. Season runs April-July. These teams are travel teams for Spring/Summer and carry a cost to families 2-5X that of the regular Fall/Winter Club Season.

👉 Fall/Winter Club Season is our largest program, with weekly practices (1-2x/week) and weekend games. All players join through a very fair balancing process — no preset teams.

If a group is full, join the waitlist — most waitlisted players get placed, if not with us with another club as we work with our neighbouring clubs to assure all kids find a place to play if possible. 


📲 Get the RAMP Teams App

Download RAMP Teams from your app store.

  • Sign up using the same email you registered with.

  • Your schedule will appear when ready.

  • Use the app to chat with your coach/team and manage schedules.

If your schedule doesn’t appear when expected: operations@rocketsbasketball.ca


🏀 Season Overview

Fall/Winter Club

  • Team balancing in September; practices start October.

  • U10/U12: Saturday games (Oct-Feb).

  • U14+: Sunday games (Oct-March).

  • Season follows school holidays.

  • Some teams may continue to provincials and extra tournaments after the season ends(extra cost).

  • Our Club is a member of Basketball Canada, Basketball Nova Scotia - and we submit our teams and play in the Halifax Metro Basketball Association (www.mbans.ca), We follow their rules and guide lines for game play and they create the game schedule, validate our division alignment and provide the best basketball league experience in Atlantic Canada for atheletes. Residents of HRM and surrounding are very lucky to have such an organization and it makes for a very organized and successful club season. 

Jr NBA (ages 5-7)

  • Fun, skill-based program following Canada Basketball guidelines.

  • Fall (Sept-Dec), Winter (Jan-March), Spring (April/May).

  • 10-12 sessions, mostly Sundays at East Dartmouth CC.

Spring 3x3

  • Skills + FIBA 3x3 games in one session.

  • 1 to 2 x week, groups around 20, 8-10 sessions. Lots of on court time and lots of reps

Summer/Sprummer

  • Competitive travel teams (travel, higher fees, fundraising required).

  • House league sprummer teams available in boys U12/U14 and U16 in 2025, more local, lower cost, lots of reps, 2 practices/week and four, 4 game tournaments. 


🧢 What You Need as an athlete

  • Shoes: Indoor, ideally basketball-specific.

  • Water bottle (labeled).

  • Comfortable gym wear.

  • Club players: Game jersey/shorts (provided, returnable).

  • Jr NBA: Keep your provided jersey + ball.

  • No jewelry or unsafe hair items during play.


? Balancing & Playing Time for Club Season

  • All athletes try out annually for fair team placement.

  • U10/U12/U14: Equal shifts/fair play with the exception of D1 and D2 U14 Teams, and the Fourth Quarter in U14 for all teams. 

  • U16/U18: Open rotations, more competitive.

  • Full league rules: MBA Rules of Play


📌 Game Day Tips

  • Arrive early (15-20 min before listed game time).

  • Bring correct jersey color, water bottle, and gear.

  • Support all players, respect officials and coaches.

  • No food/drink (other than water) in gyms.


💬 Communication & Conduct

  • Use the 24-48 hour rule: Wait before raising concerns to allow for cooler heads. If an incident arises that does not need immediate attention due to player safety - wait a day or two and see if it still feels the same. Typically it's a game time, same day emotional repsonse and it seems less important after a day or two. 

  • Support coaches — they’re volunteers giving their time to your kids.

  • Never engage negatively with officials, coaches, or opposing teams. This will only get you suspended from watching games.


💡 Club Info

  • Rockets is a volunteer-run, non-profit club since 1999.

  • Registration includes jersey use, insurance, league games.

  • Additional events (tournaments, provincials) = extra cost that your team will fundrasise or ask for in advance. 


💵 Fundraising

  • Club wide 50/50 draws: Earn credits toward future fees, a percentage of your sales goes on your account as a credit for future programs. 

  • Raffles, auctions, FlipGive: Help keep programs affordable. Our overhead as a non profit is high, so we fundraise through out the year to help everyone keep their registration fees as low as we can. 

  • Team fundraising: Optional, for team extras like tournaments, parties, etc.. Please help your team if they are trying to organise something. 


🚀 Get Involved

  • We always need coaches, assistants, team managers — no experience required.

  • Help us keep Rockets strong and growing!

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