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Vancouver Bandits

Fraser Valley Bandits Thriving In Abbotsford And Raising The Bar For Basketball Development In Canada

January 14, 2021 - Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL)
Vancouver Bandits News Release


Mike Morreale clearly recalls the first time he met Dylan Kular.

The date was July 16, 2018.

As commissioner of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, Morreale had descended on Abbotsford, B.C., to address media and stakeholders at the logo reveal for the Fraser Valley Bandits.

In attendance was Kular, a highly regarded young member of the community who wanted nothing more than to somehow be a part of the organization.

Kular had previously been contacted by Lee Genier – the Chief Operating Officer of the league's western division – but had assumed the CEBL was interested in talking about a youth sports organization he had recently co-founded called the Abbotsford Basketball Association.

It turns out Morreale and Genier had more in mind as Kular had been highly recommended to them during their search for someone to lead the business operations side of the Bandits.

"In a short period of time, we realized how much of a go-getter, hungry, and well-rounded person he was," Morreale says of Kular.

"We had heard through the grapevine and through the mayor's office and some other people that this is a person we wanted to look at and we lucked out. He's become even more than I think we had anticipated, certainly from that first meeting."

Kular, now 28, quickly excelled in the Bandits' front office and was promoted to vice president ahead of the league's second season. He is described by Morreale as the "boots on the ground" for the Fraser Valley franchise.

"We have across the board some incredibly talented and dedicated people and Dylan has to be in the top three league-wide," says Morreale. " He's not scared of working hard, not scared of getting in front of people and trying new ideas. He is relentless."

When Kular returned to Abbotsford after earning his degree and playing collegiate basketball at Quest University in Squamish, B.C., he and other community members saw a gap in basketball development and, in January 2016, established a not-for-profit organization that prioritizes access to sports participation for youth outside of the school system.

Kular, who previously worked as a marketing consultant for Black Press Media, is now taking his commitment to growing grassroots basketball to a new level in his role with the Bandits.

The league recently announced an initiative which it says is "designed to encourage participation and development of basketball at the grassroots and elite levels across Canada." The CEBL Academy, as it will be known, is set to begin in Abbotsford early this year.

While the CEBL has always maintained a long-term vision of establishing a stable grassroots presence in all of its professional markets, it is clear that Kular and his management team - who Morreale credits as being "ahead of the curve" – pushed the process forward for a pilot project that otherwise may not have been in the immediate plans.

"All of our teams are actively looking at community engagement plans," says Morreale. "Dylan and [Bandits Director of Operations Andrew Savory] and his team took it five steps further and started the beginnings of what the CEBL Academy concept will be.

"That's why we called it a pilot project, because truthfully [the Bandits are] a little bit ahead of the curve, but that's not a bad thing. It's now really positioned [the CEBL] and our other teams to look at what they have done and let it serve as a good model for continuing that across the country."

After delivering a plan that landed on Morreale's desk completely vetted and accounting for every detail required to make the academy project successful, Kular is happy to share his model with a league that prides itself on collaboration among competing teams.

"We have learned a lot through this process," says Kular. "How the CEBL is built is if we have an issue here and we see success in other markets, we phone our fellow colleagues and learn how they are doing things.

"[The Bandits] have a blueprint and we'll share any information that any other team wants [in order] to have a successful launch as we are about to have with our academy here in Fraser Valley."

Overall, the CEBL is taking a bullish stance both on what it has established in Abbotsford and in general the hotbed for basketball that exists in the lower mainland of British Columbia. On this front, Morreale indicated that the league is considering putting more teams in the area as a similar approach to Ontario where the Guelph Nighthawks, Hamilton Honey Badgers, and Niagara River Lions compete in relatively close proximity.

In addition to the way in which Abbotsford has embraced the Bandits, an equal amount of enthusiasm has come from fans south of the border in Washington who chose to remain as season ticket holders even as the league pivoted to a hub-style tournament in St. Catharines, Ont., to salvage its 2020 season during the on-going pandemic.

Whether it's this year or in 2022 when professional sports leagues can return to some type of normalcy, Kular recognizes that the time has arrived for the CEBL to push all of its chips to the middle of the table.

"Everyday is a new challenge, but we're all built to get through these challenges and make sure this is successful," says Kular.

"If the CEBL doesn't do well now, then I'm not sure a Canadian domestic league will ever do well. So we all understand the pressure to make sure this is successful, and we all want this to be successful, and all believe this is the right time for Canadian basketball to be showcased like this."

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