The HBHS Junior Premier Basketball programme has had another successful year with all Junior teams finishing in the top 5 of the schools across the Waikato. The Junior Premier team finished first, the Year 10As finished third, and the Year 9A team finished fifth.
The Junior Prems finished unbeaten for the season, righting the loss of last year's final against our friends from St John's in the final by winning convincingly 88-65 to finish first this year.
Outstanding commitment to the programme and the culture has shown that there is a wealth of talent available in HBHS with a number of players competing in Waikato age groups and Cullen Parai being selected as part of the Under 16 New Zealand team squad (non-travelling player).
We also combined the Junior Prems and Year 10As to create a hybrid team to compete at the BBNZ Regional Zone 2 Premiership where Coach Danny took the helm and come away second overall, losing to a well-oiled Tauranga team.
Overall, it was a very successful year for Junior Basketball for the school and a great future ahead for the players stepping into higher honours next season.
I look forward to next season where we continue to build off the platform of great success and start to spread our success even further.
Thank you to all the parents and caregivers who have assisted in making this Junior programme what it is and I appreciate the hard work it takes to be an elite Junior athlete in this day and age. Special mention to Schaylen Parai for his efforts in the assistant coaching role with the Junior Prems and all the counsel provided during the season.