BASKETBALL

Helsinki YMCA has a strong tradition and a long history in basketball. Vilho Nuoreva, a member of Helsinki YMCA, brought the game of basketball to Finland in the late 1920s. Basketball has been played in Helsinki YMCA since 1927. Since then the club has won altogether 64 Finnish Championships, seven out of which have been won by men’s team, the others in junior or senior leagues. Also the first, and so far the only, Finnish NBA player Hanno Möttölä played most of his junior years in YMCA Pakila, which is part of Helsinki YMCA.

Nowadays the club is focusing on the development of young players. We have more than 60 teams for children, teenagers and adults of all ages – with over 730 license players we are the second biggest basketball club in Finland. The aim of the club is to provide everyone with a team that matches both the skills and willingness of a player. This is possible in popular FUN-groups (once a week, easy to start playing at any age) and for older ages in many practice groups with the players of the same age.

Basically players start to play in a regional league at the age of seven or eight. At around the age of 13 the first teams start competing in national leagues, too. The youngest group is for 2-4-year-olds who practise with their own parent. The younger the players are the more we important it is to have the possibility to play basketbal neat the players’ homes and that’s why we have two or three local teams within Helsinki (Pakila, Malmi and Stadi, the centrum area). We also have a Unified-team where both disabled and non-disabled players play together and many adult teams that play in the Southern area II division or lower.

The club also organizes HNMKY Basket Camps during the summer and other school holidays. We also run an Open Practice at Malmi every week-day for the club’s own players at 14.30-16.

If you want to join or ask about our activities, you can contact the coach of the team directly or get in touch with our office: