ManitobaWinnipeg’s newest basketball court was officially unveiled in the city’s north end this weekend, and many believe the facility will represent far more than just a place where youth can play the sport.R.B. Russell school unveils new brightly coloured, full-sized court for communityCBC News · Posted: Sep 14, 2025 9:38 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours agoA young basketball player is seen taking a shot at the brand new basketball court at the RB Russell Vocational High School in Winnipeg north end, at the court’s grand opening on Saturday. (Rudi Pawlychyn/CBC)Winnipeg’s newest basketball court was officially unveiled in the city’s North End this weekend.”This is going to have a huge impact,” Lindsey Munz, the principal of R.B. Russell Vocational High School said Saturday, at the grand opening of the new court at the North End neighbourhood school, located at 364 Dufferin Ave.”One of the biggest things that the students share is that community and belonging is extremely important for them, and to be able to have an inclusive and safe space where they can come together and play with their friends is going to mean a lot to them.”On Saturday, Munz joined officials with the Winnipeg School Division, the Winnipeg Sea Bears, Buckets & Borders and Warriorz Basketball to celebrate the grand opening of the strikingly colourful new court. The facility features a mural titled “Basketball is Medicine” by Anishinaabe woodlands artist Blake Angeconeb, and the school division said the design reflects growth, protection, and healing, and symbolizes “the power of sport and culture to bring people together.”Its design features the eagle, in honour of the strong Indigenous population in the community, with the goal of growing the sport in the North End.Munz believes the new court will be a positive thing not only for the youth at the school who live in the area, but for the entire North End as a whole. Grade 12 student Shane Daniels says he’s “speechless” over the new courts, and he can’t wait to hang out and watch his friends play there. (CBC/Rudi Pawlychyn)”Some of the feedback we’ve had from students is they’ve had nowhere to go, so now for people in this community, they have somewhere where they can go to gather, to connect with each other, and to play basketball,” she said. “This is going to be available to the entire community, this community is a very beautiful community, and they deserve to have facilities that are nothing but the absolute best.” Grade 12 student Shane Daniels said he was “speechless” to see the beautiful new courts on Saturday. While he doesn’t play basketball himself, he said he’s eager to hang out there and watch his friends play, who he believes will appreciate the court, as there wasn’t one before. “It’s pretty rare, you really don’t see much happening, like having funding and other stuff,” he said. “It’s wonderful, the artwork, the colours, it’s very vibrant.”The budget for the project, according to Winnipeg School Division Superintendent Matthew Henderson, was approximately $200,000, with funding coming through a partnership between the school division, the Sea Bears, and Buckets & Borders.This is now the fourth new basketball court that Buckets & Borders, a not-for-profit organization that works to build the game of basketball in cities and communities in Canada and around the world, has helped to build in Winnipeg since 2023.A young basketball player is seen testing out the brand new basketball court at the RB Russell Vocational High School in Winnipeg north end, at the court’s grand opening on Saturday. (Rudi Pawlychyn/CBC)Buckets & Borders CEO and co-founder Justin Lee, who was at Saturday’s grand opening, hinted the organization could become involved in more projects in Winnipeg in the coming months and years. “Winnipeg has been so good to us,” Lee said. “At the end of the day we learn that the power of community is what allows us to do projects like this, and we’re just grateful to be welcomed into these communities.”Daman Morissette, one of the co-founders of Warriorz Basketball, a team made up of all Indigenous players that represents Manitoba in tournaments across North America, said having facilities in the North End like the new court is a good step towards keeping youth on the right path. “One way to get a kid off the street is to get ’em on the court,” Morissette said. “And it’s a fantastic court, it’s really appealing to the eye, it’s something that you gravitate towards.””The new court is also something that the North End should be proud of, because of how state-of- the-art it is,” Morrisette said. “This is a real-deal, high-calibre court, where you can excel your game and you can grow, but most importantly you can build relationships with other people in the community along the way.”
Vibrant new basketball court opens in Winnipeg’s North End
