As we draw to a close for the basketball season, I would just like to firstly thank all of our junior players, staff and parents for their ongoing efforts and support with our developing basketball programme. 

Our young men had an opportunity to go to the Bay Of Plenty Junior Basketball tournament in Tauranga on August 6th. Selection for this team saw 4 students picked from the Tauhara Gold team and 7 from the Blue team, with one student who was unavailable. 

To those who didn't make the team for this tournament, we speak about demonstrating the right attitude and being a team player in our junior basketball group. Many of these players have improved immensely over the season and will be a huge credit to our programme in the coming years. Keep at it!

The team we had was still pretty inexperienced in comparison to other teams at the tournament. We were shorter than most and had to fight for our points, but our boys did just that. We fought hard through our first game against tough opposition from Te Puke, they had a well-drilled system and skills which allowed them to pick apart our defense. We hustled our way to a commendable defeat with two games ahead of us to try to improve.

Game two vs Murupara area school was an exciting game that saw us match the opposition with early scoring. However, the middle two-quarters of the game proved difficult, a sharp shooter from Murupara put us away with scoring 22 out of 26 points for his team in relatively quick succession. This left us behind but to the credit of our young men, we fought back to win the final quarter with no avail to the final score though. A loss that could have swung our way. 

Heading into game 3 vs Whakatane High, the boys maintained their energy and excitement, we were going out to enjoy this final game. A back 'n forth style of play took place with not alot of scoring from both teams but the physicality was high and aspects of our game debriefs were taking shape, players were defending their opponents better and with greater intent, however, the ball wouldn't go in the basket. A very close loss to finish but a more enjoyable and well-rounded level of play.

All in all, these young men who came to the tournament and/or those who have been a part of our programme this year, have been an absolute pleasure to coach and support in sport. They have been respectful, co-operated and most of all had some fun during training and games. This year has been a building block for basketball at Tauhara College, we want to encourage all those who enjoy basketball to play for the school and help build a programme that can develop leadership, basketball skills and soft skills such as commitment, time management, communication etc. 

Nga mihi