Basketball has been a big part of Asia Nichol and Travis Nystoruk’s relationship for as long as they can remember.
The Williams Lake couple grew up playing the game together in Golden and went on to play for Olds College in Alberta. Today they are in the thick of youth basketball as part of a team that formed the Williams Lake Basketball Association (WLBA), now in its third year.
Asia said she was five and Travis was six when they met. His mom was a teacher and taught Asia. They started hanging out with each other in secondary school because they both played basketball.
Travis headed to Olds to take geographic information systems (GIS). Asia enroled the following year in the business program.
“It was the only course they had that didn’t have anything to do with agriculture. I knew nothing about agriculture,” she said.
After he graduated, they moved to Kamloops for four months.
“We actually followed Jake and Amber Akeson from Red Tomato Pies, who are friends of ours from Golden,” said Travis, explaining he and Asia had worked for the Akesons in Golden.
In 2010, Travis arrived in the lakeity to help the Akesons open Red Tomato Pies in Williams Lake.
Eventually he found a GIS job and Asia moved to Williams Lake after that.
Married in 2013, they have three children - Lilliah, born in 2017, Kaleigh in 2014, and Landen in 2021.
When they aren’t doing basketball, they enjoy camping and biking — anything outdoors - with their children.
Once they’d settled into Williams Lake, Travis began playing basketball in the men’s league. He also played hockey and both of them joined soccer.
"I was trying to get a women’s basketball league going with some of the women from soccer but nobody wanted to join,” Asia said.
Around 2021, they began having discussions about wanting to do something for youth.
“Growing up we had the Golden Basketball Association and it was catered to the youth and run by a bunch of volunteers, lots of coaches, and lots of teams. We thought ‘why can’t we have that in Williams Lake?’ We wanted that for our kids,” Travis said.
Travis approached the city and was able to create an eight-week basketball program in the spring of 2022 through the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex programming. Following that, Coach Willy Hardeman held a summer camp outdoors. Travis connected with Willy through it because their daughter participated in the camp.
“I continued on with the eight-week programs through the city that fall and then started coaching the Grade 8 boys at Columneetza. By spring we started the WLBA,” he said. "We needed more refs, so Asia signed up and took a course."
Travis has continued to help out wherever he can with the school teams, usually coaching one.
While the WLBA started out with two teams in 2023, it quickly grew to six teams the following spring and last fall they dialed it back to five teams.
“Right now we’re doing five travel teams as well as a bunch of youth programs and one youth development team,” Travis said.
With support from the community they've been able to use the gyms at both Thompson Rivers University Williams Lake campus and Lake City Secondary School.
“We are super happy to have that support," Travis said.
They also do one-on-one sessions and small group sessions with the WLBA.
Joining them as coaches is Mike Waterhouse, who they said has been doing a lot.
"Willie Hardeman gives us about an hour a week, which is awesome because he’s so busy. He’s been instrumental in basketball in the community for many years,” Travis said. “He’s 70 but he has more energy than I do and could beat me up the court any day of the week. And, he’s awesome with the kids.”
The basketball travel program will continue until June and then one team - U16 boys with maybe one female player - will be travelling to compete in the summer.
During spring break there were 139 registrations for the WLBA camps at TRU.
“It was cool to see the support from TRU, see the youth come out and the parents happy there was something for their kids to do. We love it," Travis said, adding
they try to make it cost-effective and with schools having to close during spring break, they were lucky to have access to TRU.
While they have so many people to thank, they did single out Maricor and Ringo Del Rosario who have become like family to them.
"We really appreciate them and the whole community," they said.
One of the things Asia loves about Williams Lake is the small town feel for a city that is much bigger than Golden.
“Everyone is so kind,” she said. “That’s what I noticed about moving here. Everywhere you go, you know somebody.”
Watching local youth evolve as basketball players has given them both lots of satisfaction, they said.
When they aren’t involved with basketball, Travis runs a home-based GIS company and Asia is homeschooling Lilliah.
“This spring we’re actually making a trip to Calgary to compete in the Genesis Classic, a club tournament I was aware of when we were growing up,” said Travis. “On our way, we are actually stopping and playing in Golden to play against the GBA U13 boys. It’s a cool little trip for us. It will be cool to see where it all started and the reason behind what we are doing.”
