Little Ballers Founder
Coach Chad
Coach Chad Celaire has been involved in basketball as an athlete and coach for 36 years. As a coach, Coach Chad first discovered his love for coaching during his off-seasons, while playing basketball for the University of Regina in 1997. While a student-athlete, Coach Chad built on his coaching experience and became a coach for summer camps with Athletes in Action in 1998. The summer camps program was under the direction of the chaplain for the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and Director of Athletes in Action Regina, Harold Cooper.
From 2002 to 2017, Chad also worked as a Youth Minister in Winnipeg. Some of his responsibilities involved directing summer camps and local recreation activities, and mentoring youth with an emphasis on character development and leadership.
As an athlete, Coach Chad played many competitive sports including badminton; volleyball; track and field; soccer; football; and, basketball. Although talented at many sports, Coach Chad focused on the sport of basketball. His love for the game took him to play competitively for the Alberta Provincial Team and representing Alberta at the Canada Games. Coach Chad played his post-secondary career under scholarship from the University of Regina Cougars from 1997 to 1999 and Rochester College from 1999 to 2002. While at Rochester, the team took home second place in the National Small Conference Athletic Association Championships.
Today, Chad is a husband to his wife Kim, and a proud father to his two children, ages 6 and 4. Since 2017, Chad has been a stay-at-home dad. This role has led to a special interest in watching his children's development and their ability to learn new skills. It is precisely these experiences as a father that have led him to launch little BALLERS as a preschool-aged development program.
Coach Chad’s goal is to provide a positive and fun environment that will shape understanding, confidence, ability, and love for the game!
Coach Chad’s Rochester College coach was the most winningest coach in Michigan and won 4 national championships. He had this to say about Coach Chad:
“I had the privilege of coaching Chad in the early 2000s at Rochester College. Chad had incredible athletic skills & was an untiring worker. He cares for young people & any young person who is under his tutelage will benefit tremendously. Chad is a young man of integrity & has his values are to be admired.”
Garth Pleasant Professor of Sports Management Rochester University
How little BALLERS came to be…
We are Chad & Kim Celaire, parents of a toddler & preschooler!
Our family loves the outdoors, recreation & activities of all sorts! Our love for these things are what led to us starting Bee2gether Bikes back in 2007 (a bicycle rental business with locations at The Forks, Assiniboine Park, and Birds Hill Park) and Bee2gether Excursions back in 2009 (a vintage camper rental business).
Both Kim & I grew up enjoying the sport of basketball & had wanted to share this passion for it with our children.
Thus we came up with this vision for the grassroots early childhood developmental basketball program for kids which we call little BALLERS. After much planning research & using our own children as test subjects we launched little BALLERS in the fall of 2022 at Balmoral Hall & Soul Sanctuary/Sept.2022-Nov.2022 with a total of 70 registrants.
We were so excited to see our vision come to life with these ‘ little ones’ learning & developing the love for basketball & all the meantime having fun!
Basketball is a great sport for kids because it is fun, simple and an inexpensive game that builds social skills through teamwork.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN A little BALLERS SESSION
ABOUT OUR THEME SONG
Meet Grant Simpson
Grant Simpson pictured above is the writer and producer of our little BALLERS theme song. He is a Composer, for theatre, comedy, radio and podcasts.
Songwriter and Lyricist. Silent Movie Pianist. As a record producer, Grant recently produced the Claire Ness award winning kids album “Broccoli Farm” which won the Western Canadian Music Awards “Children’s Album of Year 2021” and the Canadian Folk Music Awards as “Best Children’s Album of the Year, 2020”
As a professional pianist Grant has performed in Jazz, Folk and Music Festivals throughout Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean, Mexico, China and Korea. In his pursuit to learn the authentic styles of the past, he has studied and honed his skills through many of the giants of the craft. Chad has the privilege of performing as a vocalist with Grant in various places around Winnipeg.
Meet Ella
Ella is the female vocalist in our little BALLERS THEME song. Ella is a vibrant and creative individual with an excellent sense of humour who grew up surrounded by music and art in the home. She enjoys drawing and painting, playing guitar and ukulele, taking care of her cat Ruby and dog Luna, as well as good food, and curling up by the fire with some hot chocolate and a good book. In fact, she has surpassed the reading frequency of both her parents and grandparents combined. She may have read the complete Harry Potter series six or seven times by the time she was eight...
Meet Nathaniel
Nathaniel is the male vocalist on our little BALLERS song. He currently attends Grade 4 French Immersion and is in the school choir and recently joined The Winnipeg Boy’s Choir. Nathaniel is also a singer-songwriter who plays piano by ear. Speaking of ears, Nathaniel can wiggle both of them!