Oxford Basketball team qualify for the Canterbury Primary Schools Basketball Tournament

Excitement, nervousness and anticipation were the mixture of emotions as the first ever Oxford Basketball team to qualify for the Canterbury Primary Schools' Basketball Tournament entered MainPower Stadium on Wednesday 9 August for a full day of basketball with teams across the Canterbury Primary Schools Sports zones

The Year 6 team of Millie Smith, Lucy Anderson, Jessica Shore, Indiamay Bowers, Samara Beer, Freedom Kennett and Ruby Coleman were very proud to represent Oxford Area School and Rakahuri Zone at the Year 5/6 Grade tournament. There were 20 teams in the Girls Grade and 20 teams in the Open (mixed/boys) Grade so plenty of people in the stadium were all eager to play.

The Oxford team played in the first round so not much time to think about it or warm up so came away with a draw with Ilam School. Our second game, we lost against a very skilled and tall West Spreydon team who eventually won the tournament. Our last two games in our pool we won comfortably against West Rolleston and Templeton to make us second in our pool. We struggled to get our true flow in the next two crossover games against Somerfield and Marshlands Schools but came out firing to finish the day strongly with a solid win over Kaiapoi North School to finish 7th overall. An awesome achievement by this hard working team.
Our kaupapa for the day was to enjoy the experience of playing in a Canterbury tournament, and take some learning from it personally and as a team. The girls really liked playing different teams from other schools not in North Canterbury. They all gained valuable experience going forward with basketball as well as their other sports they choose to play.

Huge thanks to Nicholas and Alex McKinney for refereeing throughout the day, you were very positive and capable of working with a variety of other referees. Special thanks to Paige Wakelin-Noble who supported the team and did the score bench for each of our games. Thanks also to Jeremy Shore and Lisa Bushrod for helping with transport and supporting the team. Also great to see other whånau popping in to watch our games during the day. Great day had by all.