SERGE
Bathurst Bears head coach Serge Langis wants the team to reflect its community during its first season in the Eastern Canadian Basketball League.
“Everyone knows that Bathurst is a blue-collar city with people who work hard so that’s what the Bears are going to represent,” the veteran coach says.
Bathurst, Moncton Motion, Saint John Union, Charlottetown Power, Summerside Slam, Truro Tide and Valley Vipers will compete in the league’s inaugural season. The league is writing the schedule and regular season games will begin in mid to late-March.
“There’s a lot of excitement in Bathurst,” Langis says. “They have never had pro basketball in Bathurst before, but I talk to a lot of people who are looking forward to it. “I can hardly wait to get started so we can bring Bathurst a team they can be proud of right away.”
Langis coached in the National Basketball League of Canada for two years as a head coach in Moncton, two as a head coach in Kitchener-Waterloo and five as an assistant in Moncton. He also served as head coach for a Chicago-based team of all-stars that toured China. Langis hopes to form an Eastern Canadian Basketball League all-star team that will also visit China.
“That’s in the future, but my entire focus now is on the Bathurst Bears,” Langis says. “We are going to have a physical team -- a hard team to play against with a lot of pressure on other teams because of our hard work on defense,” he notes. “Bathurst is going to see a lot of grit from our guys. I’ve seen a list of some of the guys on the team and they will be players that Bathurst can be proud of.”
In 1984, Papa Johns Pizza started in the small town of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and its popularity has spread all the way to Atlantic Canada. Today, Papa Johns boasts over 3,600 restaurants and can be found in more than 35 international markets outside of the USA. In Atlantic Canada, we opened our first Papa Johns franchise in Moncton, operating under the name of PJ Atlantic Restaurants Ltd. in 2009.
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