The secondary school basketball leagues played on Wednesdays at the ASB Arena continue to grow in popularity following the Breakers phenomenal success and the rise in interest in the NBL since Rotorua's Steven Adams was picked by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Senior Boys' A competition started on May 15and will conclude with playoffs in mid-September.
Aquinas College took on Te Puke High School yesterday, in the first game for Te Puke since they stepped up from the B division, and they were competitive for the first three quarters before the score blew out to 56-33 for an Aquinas win.
One of Aquinas College's top players is Year 12 Justin Sangster, who said playing in the top division and having to front Tauranga Boys' College's top team had been a big learning curve. "The first two experiences against them haven't been too flash but I am sure if we put more effort in and train more, we could give them a good run hopefully, or at least pull them back from what happened before," Sangster said.
"We have never come across teams with that skill level. They came fifth at the nationals and it is good to see what we will come up against if we do get to the national level."
"Netball and soccer have always been our strong sports but we also have a strong water polo team and our first XV is going quite well this year in the first division."
