From a strong showing of social teams entered into the Friday Night Social Competition, to the U17 Black Boys And U15 White Boys winning their grades in the CBA competition, it was a great year for Burnside Basketball.

In both the U17 Boys and U15 Boys grades, Burnside had 3 teams entered across the Canterbury Basketball Association Saturday Competition, along with one team in the U20 grade. 

In addition to the boys teams in the Saturday grades, we also had a Senior Girls and Boys team entered into the Secondary Schools Thomson and Whelan Trophy competition.  

All of the teams represented Burnside High School with pride and made huge strides in their development as players. This development was greatly assisted by the implementation of block training with Coach Adam, alongside strength and conditioning training with Moses Bygate-Smith. 

Congratulations to the U17 Black Boys team who won their Saturday competition with a very convincing 75-63 win against St Bede's. And also to the U15 White team who won their Saturday grade against St Andrew's Blue 68-48.  

The Senior Boys team also did extremely well making it to final of their grade, they only just lost to the Atami Checkers in the final. They had a tough season in the Thomson Trophy competition but each week the team showed grit and determination fighting until the final whistle.  One of the highlights of the Senior Boys season was chalking up a good win against Ashburton College as part of the Ashburton Sports Exchange, 83-65.

The Senior Girls A team competed in the Whelan Trophy competition on Tuesday evenings with the other Girls' teams playing in the Friday Night Social competition.  The Senior Girls A team had a strong Whelan Trophy season just narrowly missing out on their division semi-finals, placing 5th in Division 2. The team also played a great game down in Ashburton as part of the sports exchange, only just losing to Ashburton College 55 - 50. It was an exciting game to watch, with the girls giving it their all until the end.

Player Achievement

Congratulations to the following students on their achievements this season:  

• Jack Hollingworth was selected in the Canterbury U17 B team and the All Star 5 for the CBA U17 Saturday grade. Jack was also awards Finals MVP, for the game when his team won the U17 grade. 
• Kai Shields was selected in a Mainland Tournament Team and an U23 Checkers Men's team. 
• Lorenz Torres was selected in the All Stars, and was named as a 2021 McDonalds All Star MVP.
• Poppie Busch-Ward was selected in the Canterbury U16 First Team, and the Canterbury U15 team that competed at the Aon U15 National tournament. Poppie was also invited to attend the U14 National Development camp.  
• Niamh Chamberlain was invited to attend the U14 National Development camp.
• Tahlia Perham was named one of the 2021 McDonalds All Star MVPs.

South Island Secondary Schools Championships

Three teams (the Girls Senior A, Boys U15 Black and Senior Boys) were all set to attend the South Island Secondary School Basketball Championships as part of the NZ Secondary Schools Winter Tournament Week when the most recent Covid Delta outbreak lead to the cancellation of the tournament week in full. This was a very disappointing outcome for all the players and supporters who had worked very hard on the organising and fundraising to ensure that all players could attend the tournament. 

Thank you to all the coaches and supporters

A big thank you to all the coaches, managers and supporters for all your hard work throughout the season.

U15 Black - Shaun London (Coach), and Lesley McLachlan (Manager)
U15 Green - Nathan Muirhead (Coach) and Nate Loong (Coach)
U15 White - Dilshan Muthunaidelage (Coach) and Nathan Moore (Manager)

U17 Black - Jamie Wright (Coach) and Rebecca Menendez (Manager)
U17 Green - Jayden Cameron (Coach) and Craig Watts (Manager)
U17 White - Jack Dickson (Coach) and Vaughn Lapslie (Manager)

Senior Boys - Adam Morgan (Coach), Brad Livingstone (Coach/Physio), Jayden Cameron (Coach), Di Livingstone (Manager), Kirsty Shrapoff (Manager)

Senior Girls - Charise Martin (Coach), Shahanna Martin (Coach) and Marinda van Vuuren (Manager)

The biggest thank you of the season should go to Head Coach Adam Morgan, he has been an inspirational coach and leader of the BHS Basketball Programme over the past 3 seasons and we wish him all the very best in his new role with the Canterbury Rams.