Sporting News

ANNUAL SOUTHPORT AND FORMBY GIRLS’ BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

The very unseasonal hot sunshine on Tuesday 21st April 2015 definitely acted as a good charm for our 3 teams at the Girls’ Basketball Tournament as it shone down on the outdoor basketball courts at Formby High School. We entered all competitions and the girls didn't fail to impress both the staff and their opposition with some great team play, chest passing, rebounding, set shotting, lay-upping, dribbling and cheering.

Our Year 7 team enjoyed their first outing at the tournament and played with lots of determination and skill as a team to outwit lots of the other teams with some great dribbling and movement on court. We were able to put more than 10 shots up every game in the 7 minutes allocated for each match but unfortunately, as the tournament was straight after the Easter break, some of the shooting was a bit rusty and we were unable to execute the shot to put another 2 points on the board. Overall, the girls were awarded the Runners Up prize which was a fabulous achievement for a team that had only really practised together for a few months. I believe if they come back to training next year and all of our shots actually go into the net instead of coming back off the backboard, we will emerge the champions next year!

Our Year 8 team was made up mostly of our netballers so they were able to transfer lots of their silky skills from the netball court onto the meaner, more fluid and faster basketball courts with ease. Their shooting was great as was their ability to dribble the ball up the court to our key, but at key moments some of our passes were easy to read and were intercepted by the other team which denied us another shooting chance to bag another shot on target. The girls were awarded third place overall which again I was very proud of as their coach and thought they were unlucky not to nick second place which they narrowly missed out on after they could only secure a draw result in their last game. Keep your heads up high girls:a great performance this year again.

Our Year 10s were able to provide a masterclass to their opposing teams in how to play fast, skilful, tactical, team basketball. Molly played a great point guard, bringing the ball up and defending at the top of the key waiting for a fast break opportunity to sink a layup on the counter attack after a defending rebound from Lauren or Cat or an agile interception from Paige, Caitlin or Alice. Other staff said to me that they loved watching our girls play as they played 'proper' basketball and they'd told their Year 7 team during their rest rounds to go and watch CTK Year 10 play 'to see how it's done' - the best compliment you can get! Unsurprisingly, the girls were named Champions of Southport and Formby again and it was well deserved.

I am so proud of all the girls who were lucky enough to be selected in the final team lists to make up my basketball squads, but I am also very pleased that there was so much competition this season with the numbers who turned out every Friday after school in the gym in their kit to try out for the team. I hope all the girls return next year so that we can train to be even better and maybe do a clean sweep and win the competition in each age group ... Watch this space!

Well done girls, see you at Rounders and Athletics Club after school in the Summer Term where you can keep training on your fitness, throwing and jumping!

Mrs Summers White

#Sport