John Desormeaux has been around basketball pretty much his entire life.

He just hasn't been around this kind of basketball before.

Taking a page out of the Granny Basketball League in the United States, Desormeaux and friends launched the Silver Hoop Sisters in Sudbury recently.

As the name implies, the original league was created for "women of a certain age" - in the wording from their website (www.grannybasketball.com).

To be more specific, the sport is open to women ages fifty and up. But where events like the Ontario Women's Masters Basketball Tournament will assemble a good number of former post-secondary hoopsters, the version embraced by the Silver Hoops Sisters takes a softer, gentler approach.

Specific league rules include guidelines such as a maximum of two dribbles per possession per player and prohibits running or jumping - though players may "hurry".

The standard basketball court is divided into three courts for this variation of basketball - and players may not move outside of their designated mini-court.

If you are getting the sense here that fun and fitness exist in equal doses with this group that is now almost twenty strong, you are not wrong.

And the appeal, it seems, runs the entire spectrum of athletics for the fifty plus crowd.

"I want to stay healthy, I want to meet people and I want to learn new things," suggested retired educator Sue Lapointe. "You have a mix of women who have played for a long time and women like me who really have no idea about the game."

As much as anything, the participants stress the notion of the Silver Hoops Sisters providing a welcoming and supportive environment where similarly-minded women can simply come out and do their thing - and have fun doing it.

"Everybody is so encouraging," said Lapointe. "These women can teach you things."

Jo-Anne Dumont brings an altogether different background to the mix, having played varsity basketball both at the University of Ottawa and Laurentian University following her graduation from Collège Notre-Dame - where she played for one John Desormeaux.

"What we established right away is that it's about a social aspect and collaboration," explained Dumont. "We want to empower each other. We're strong minded and resilient women - and we're not sitting on a couch."

Still, with a healthy swath of former physical education teachers, there is some innate competitive drive that does not dissipate easily. Striking that balance in this morphed basketball setting has been eye-opening for many of those on hand.

"I'm competitive, but I am also open to learning," stated Lapointe. "I am going to make errors, but I see those errors as an opportunity to learn and get better. I like to think that I am playing against myself, first and foremost."

"It's actually good that we are not fully running and that the rules are a bit different because fitness levels are not what they once were," noted Dumont candidly. "Recuperating after practices or games takes a little bit longer."

"In our minds, we might want to be a bit more aggressive on the court, so we have to remind each other: slow it down."

The local group have grown to the point of creating two teams, with Alice Desormeaux, Rachelle Urso, Karen Guenette, Lianne Raymond, Pam Brown, Karen Schwabe and Kathy Dahmer, Denise Leclair forming the Canadian Gals roster while Dumont and Lapointe are joined by Jocelyne LeClair, Dolly Despatie Mazal, Brenda McMahon, Lorraine Legault, Joanne Noël, Desirée Marcotte, Josée Trudeau and Laurie-Ann Cayen on the Rockettes squad.

Anyone looking for more information is asked to contact John Desormeaux either via email (oawjohn@gmail.com) or by phone at (705) 691-3178.