Junior players get big opportunity

MELBOURNE BECKONS: Gisborne will be represented on a Basketball Pacific under-12 tour to Melbourne this month. Getting in some practice before the trip are (from left) Jerome Tamatea, Jorjah Tuapawa, Ariana Kepa, Gisborne Basketball Association chairman Dwayne Tamatea (who is also travelling), Riley Lewis and Jiraiya Patuwai. Picture by Liam Clayton

BASKETBALL

IT is huge, it is iconic and that’s where they’re going. Gisborne junior basketballers Jerome Tamatea, Jiraiya Patuwai, Riley Lewis, Ariana Kepa and Jorjah Tuapawa are destined for Melbourne on their 2019 Basketball Pacific under-12 tour.

Basketball Pacific is sending two boys’ teams and two girls’ teams comprising players from BP’s nine member associations — Gisborne, New Plymouth, Rotorua, Taranaki Country, Tauranga, Te Tai Tokerau, Thames Valley, Waikato and Franklin.

Included in the travelling party with coaches and managers will be one New Zealand referee with each of the four teams — he or she will control that team’s games with an Australian official.

The five Gisborne youngsters leave Auckland tomorrow morning, will train from 1pm to 3pm and attend a coaching clinic from 4pm to 5.30pm at the six-court Knox Basketball Stadium in Boronia that evening. They will play at the stadium from 7.30pm to 8.30pm on Saturday nigh.

On Sunday from 1pm to 3pm, they will play in a tournament at Fairhills High School’s state-of-the-art WH Glasson Stadium and on Monday from 11am to 1pm they will take part in a mini-tournament at Rowville Secondary College.

On Tuesday they will play in a mini-tournament at Rowville from midday to 2.30pm and fly home that evening, arriving in Auckland at 12.35pm.

For 12-year-old sportspeople, this will be an eye-opener in terms of travel, sight, sound and size.

“It’s competition at a high level; our teams will get to experience the Australian style of play — against kids who’ve had to trial to make academies and had to work extremely hard,” Basketball Pacific chairman Mark Rogers said.

“For us, it’s all about providing excellent opportunities for the under-12s in our associations, and from there on to Koru tours and the like.”