Basketball: Te Wharekura o Mauao one of five Western Bay Schools competing at 2018 Schick Championships

The Te Wharekura of Mauao girls basketball team will be one of five Western Bay schools competing at a national basketball competition next week. Photo / George Novak

The physicality of a basketball game - that's what Te Marama Hika-Munroe loves about the sport.

The captain of the Te Wharekura o Mauao girls' basketball team is looking forward to heading to Palmerston North this weekend to compete in next week's 2018 Schick Championships, also known as the A and AA secondary school national champs.

It is the second time the girls have made it through to the competition and Hika-Munroe is looking forward to the experience, as well as the "physicality" of the sport and getting to go away with her like-minded teammates.

The school is one of five Western Bay schools represented at the championships, which this year celebrates 50 years of the competition.

Te Wharekura o Mauao is competing in the "A" tournament for co-ed schools with less than 600 students or single-sex schools with less than 300 students. A girls team from Te Kura Kokiri, who are no strangers to the competition having taken out their division in 2015, and a boys team from Waihi College are also in this part of the champs, starting Monday and ending on Thursday.

The "AA" tournament, which will run until October 6, is for the larger schools, with Tauranga Girls' College and Tauranga Boys' College making it into the nationals.

There will be a total of 268 basketball games played, featuring 800 players from 69 teams during the competition.

Te Wharekura o Mauao deputy principal and basketball coach Teimana Bennett said the school had been working on their basketball programme for about seven years, which was seeing results particularly in the growth of numbers and the development of the players.

He said in the school's first year at the nationals last year their focus was to gain experience.

"Our second, we would love to aim for top eight this year coming around, and looking to strive for higher than that most probably next year," Bennett said.

"A top eight would be credible."

He said basketball was a well-represented sport in the Western Bay and making the nationals was a great achievement.

Western Bay Schools qualified for 2018 Schick Championships:
A Secondary Schools
Te Kura Kokiri (A Girls)
Te Wharekura o Mauao (A Girls)
Waihi College (A Boys)
AA Secondary Schools
Tauranga Boys' College (AA Boys)
Tauranga Girls' College (AA Girls)