Our Mission
To inspire and empower young athletes through high-quality basketball—creating not only strong players but strong people. We build confidence, leadership, and a lifelong love of the game in an inclusive, safe, and supportive community.
Our Core Values
At Ottawa Shooting Stars, basketball is more than a game—it’s a vehicle for helping children and youth grow into confident, respectful, and resilient individuals. Every program, every team, and every experience is guided by five core values that define who we are as a club.
- Create Belonging – We welcome every athlete into an environment where they feel seen, valued, and supported.
- Build Community – We foster meaningful connections between players, families, coaches, volunteers, and partners.
- Champion Safe Sport – We are committed to providing a safe, respectful, and developmentally appropriate experience for every participant.
- Develop Character for Life – We use basketball to build confidence, leadership, resilience, teamwork, and integrity that extend well beyond the court.
- Pursue Excellence – We strive to deliver high-quality programming, coaching, and opportunities that help every athlete reach their full potential.
Our Story
Ottawa Shooting Stars Basketball Club was founded in 1991 by Devon Woods and Cindy Bates, who shared a vision of creating opportunities for young athletes to develop through basketball. The club’s journey began with just sixteen 10- and 11-year-old girls. While that first team didn’t win a game, they built something far more important—a love for the game, lifelong friendships, and the foundation of a club that continues to impact thousands of young athletes today.
As interest in the program grew, the club quickly expanded to include two Minor Bantam girls’ teams, allowing players to compete at the Ontario Provincial Championships. Soon after, Ottawa Shooting Stars added a Bantam girls’ division with two competitive “A” teams and another Minor Bantam team. One of those teams led the Eastern Ontario Basketball Association (EOBA) standings for the entire season before narrowly missing the league championship. The club later partnered with the Ottawa Rookies to provide a U16 pathway, ensuring athletes had continued opportunities to develop and compete.
Over the past three decades, Ottawa Shooting Stars has grown from those original sixteen players into one of Eastern Ontario’s largest and most respected basketball clubs. Today, we proudly serve more than 1,000 boys and girls each year through a wide range of programs, including Small Ball, Novice, House League, Competitive, and Rising Stars High Performance.
Our teams have celebrated numerous EOBA and Ontario Basketball (OBA) championships, and many of our athletes have continued their basketball journeys at the collegiate, university, and professional levels. While we are proud of those accomplishments, our greatest success has always been helping young people develop confidence, character, leadership, and a lifelong passion for basketball.
As we look to the future, we continue to build on the vision established in 1991. The Ottawa Shooting Stars remain committed to providing high-quality basketball experiences in a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment where every athlete has the opportunity to learn, grow, compete, and belong
The Ottawa Shooting Stars Basketball Club is a federal corporation under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act #432678-4