A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
It is unprecedented.
Until tonight’s game between Campion College and Lytton High School, no school team will have won the women’s Gisborne club basketball final: fact.
Former Gisborne Basketball Association president Steph Beattie, who coached the Gisborne men’s team to victory in the third division final here against New Zealand Army in 1978, yesterday confirmed the unique status of tonight’s game.
“To hear that two school teams have made the final is quite wonderful and I may actually go and watch them,” said Beattie, who followed supercoach the late Ivan Cowley as the GBA’s second life member.
Lytton coach Amoe Tarsau, who played for Lytton from 1993 to 1997, said the mere fact that the college teams will be on show tonight — never mind the prospect of a school side being champions — added to the excitement.
“I want my girls to have fun and enjoy playing in a final.”
Campion coach Adrian Sparks said it was amazing to watch his team beat Ngati Porou.
“We’re hoping that our big three — Petra (Sparks), Anna (Spring) and Te Oriwa (Tuipulotu-Collier) — can pull us through tonight,” he said.
“I’ve been working with this group for five years. They’ve gone from being beaten 110-3 at a tournament in Tauranga to this.
“Two schoolgirls’ teams in the final speaks well of the hard work that these girls and the GBA have done to develop players. It’s a special night for basketball — huge, but not surprising.
“Jayda Waititi-Leach is tiny but she’s stuck dagger-blows in some big teams. She’s one of our major concerns, with her basketball intelligence and her courage. Alicia Kepa and Kiara Swannell need to be watched as well.”
Lytton captain Waititi-Leach is expecting it to be intense.
“We’ll just play how we’ve been playing this whole season and never give up,” she said.
Waititi-Leach has already made history this season — her one-hander against Paikea for 35-33 sealing victory for Lytton in the last game of the round robin. A week later, Lytton proved that was no fluke by beating the powerful Paikea 34-30 in the 3 v 4 semifinal.
The Petra Sparks-led Campion team broke new ground in beating Ngati Porou 35-23 in the 1 v 4 semifinal, ending the three-year reign of Ngati Porou — the only GBA team, men’s or women’s, to win three straight titles.
Sparks said her team were looking forward to the final.
“Nerves are starting to kick in,” she said.
“I hope our team’s hard work pays off. We have a plan.”
Campion will be without centre Jett Pohatu, who will be at a kickboxing grading event in Ruatoki, and whippet Jayda Banks, for family reasons.
Women’s finals draw big crowds and have a special character.
With the playing form of Campion’s Tuipulotu-Collier and Lytton’s Maia Rickard, spectators could see a buzzer-beater finish to top Kay Symes’s match-winner for Burger Wisconsin in 1997.
CAMPION COLLEGE: Petra Sparks (captain), Anna Spring, Te Oriwa Tuipulotu-Collier, Lily Sparks, Summer Marama-Kingi, Michelle Hills and Brittany Lemaua.
LYTTON HIGH SCHOOL: Jayda Waititi-Leach (captain), Maia Rickard, Honey Mokomoko, Kiara Swannell, Alicia Kepa, Reremoana Bartlett-Tamatea, Amoe Wharehinga and Jody Wharehinga.
Women’s finalists’ 2017 record
Campion College d LHS 33-26, d Gisborne Girls’ High School 37-18, lost 43-41 to LHS, lost 47-12 to Ngati Porou, d Hearty 34-29, d Paikea 34-29, semifinal d Ngati Porou 35-23.
Lytton High School lost 26-33 to Campion College, d Hearty by default, d Campion 43-41, d GGHS 55-9, lost 36-30 to Ngati Porou, d Paikea 35-33, semifinal d Paikea 34-30
Results of Gisborne club basketball men’s and women’s finals since 2012
2012: men, Bull Rush d SE Systems 80-55; women, Ngati Porou under-17s beat Horouta 36-31
2013: men, East Coast Mariners d Bull Rush 62-59; women, GBA u19s d Old Quackers 56-37.
2014: men, East Coast d Bull Rush 63-59; women, Ngati Porou d GBA under 17s 61-29.
2015: men, Pirates d the Dream Team 62-54; women, Ngati Porou d Mackeys 69-37.
2016: men, City Lights d SE Systems 61-37; women, Ngati Porou d YMP 42-29.