Super 8 a step up for Gisborne Boys’ High

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

It’s not hard going; it’s a higher level.

Next to the national tournament, the Super 8 is the toughest basketball New Zealand schoolboys can play. The Dwayne Tamatea-coached Gisborne Boys’ High School A team (minus one key starting forward, out with a bruised right knee) are the best from GBHS since 2014, when they achieved their highest placing — sixth — since this year’s hosts, Hastings Boys’ High, won the first event in 1998.

The driving force behind Hastings BHS basketball, former Hawke’s Bay Hawks first division head coach Curtis Wooten, has won six Super 8 titles and taken “Akina” to the national finals 21 times during his 23 years at the helm.

“From 1999 to 2001, Gisborne had athletes, like Hosea Gear, just not quite the talent or depth,” said Wooten, who remembers the exhortations of former GBHS director of basketball Frank Russell to his teams to go hard.

“Frank was a hard-working coach and Tama had those guys playing well at New Plymouth last year.”

GBHS were placed fourth in Pool A in 2018, lost the crossover game against Hamilton (3rd in Pool B) 88-38 before losing 80-59 to Hastings in the playoff for seventh position. Through it all, Max Scott — now a second-year captain — and his crew kept their heads up. They will be without 6ft 6in Sam Veitch (knee) but they have rebounding ability at their own end with Ofa Tauatevalu, Khian Westrupp, Adam Nepe and Jake Noble all well over six feet tall. Jorje Tofilau will infuriate opposition coaches if he can snatch the odd offensive rebound, and back-court players Scott, Holden Wilson and Tyrese Tuwairua-Brown are capable with some shooting touch.

Daley Riri and Tamati Horua have improved this year. Horua has outhustled bigger, more experienced opponents in the local club league, while Henare Tofilau is raw but energetic and keen to run. Isaiah Lemalu has good hands and skills; this week, those will need to function.

Tamatea said: “For us, this week is about building a team culture and getting used to playing with each other: players finding their roles within the team. We need to know how fit we are, if we’re to be competitive, and which style of play suits us best.”

GBHS have two teams — Red and Black — in the A Grade of Gisborne club competition. While Tamatea as head coach has achieved his aim of expanding his programme’s base, the group knowledge-gaps/communication gaps between players can only be breached over time on the floor — starting on Monday, at the Hastings Sports Centre.

As the eighth-placed team in 2018, Gisborne have drawn 2018 Super 8 champions Palmerston North BHS in their Pool A campaign opener at 9am on Monday. At 2pm, GBHS face Tauranga Boys’ College. On Tuesday at midday, they face Hamilton, with crossover games that evening to start at 4.30pm and 6.15pm. The playoff games and cup final will be held on Wednesday.