Many left the team including those who graduated which meant we had to rebuild our team with new Year 9’s,10’s and some seniors.

Our coach this year was an ex-student and a former basketball player of the Senior A Girls basketball team, Tsubasa Nisbet with Marinda Van Vuuren as our manager.

Tsubusa however, had to leave to play basketball and study in America; we were then joined by another ex-student of Burnside who was also a player of the Senior Girls team, Shahanna Martin. We treated this year as a development year to build our teams skills and overall be a strong team for next year.

Each and every one of us have increased our level of knowledge and skill within the game, individually and as a team and will strive to be a very strong team next year. We were able to improve and gain everything from our coaches and manager.

Earlier this year, we competed in a pre-season tournament, the Phil Burns Cup, which was held at Cashmere High. The schools we had to face were Rangiora High School, Ashburton High School, and Cashmere High School. Most of the players especially the Year 9’s and 10’s were nervous as it was their first high school tournament and game ever. Although we lost all of our games, we knew what we had to work and improve on this year. We did not go to South Island Tournament this year due to injuries in the team. Overall it was an enjoyable season.

Next year, our aim is to become more skilled and have better knowledge within the game before tournament and also to be one of the strong high school teams in the tournament. We have a great future ahead with many young basketball stars continuing on next year.