Basketball success for west norfolk academy teams

Another great year for our basketball teams and we had plenty of success before the arrival of Coronavirus.

Our Year 7 and 8 teams again entered the JNR NBA, the England Basketball national competition which was funded by the National Basketball Association. Each team represents a franchise and are issued with a kit in their colours.

The students play regular games and the objective of the league is to promote participation in the sport and ensure everyone has time on the court. It is so popular at our school that we could easily enter two teams.

Representing an NBA franchise is a great idea and England Basketball is to be congratulated on its organisation of the competition.

Our Year 7 team won their group and before the season started, our school was assigned the Indian Pacers franchise. We had two wins over the King’s Lynn Academy and the Nicholas Hamond Academy and then we beat King Edward VII and Springwood to qualify as top seeds in the regional rounds.

In the quarter finals we drew the Nicholas Hamond Academy who conceded just as the Coronavirus outbreak closed schools. We were waiting to discover our semi-final opponents and if we had made it to the finals it would have been a trip to Herfordshire University in Hatfield.

The same team also won the District Tournament, winning five out of six games and beating the Nicholas Hamond Academy in the final to become the District Champions.  Our second team also performed really well in the tough event.

Our Year 8 team also won their JNR NBA group, where they played as the Cleveland Cavaliers, beating Springwood, King’s Lynn Academy and Springwood. As the school closed they were about to play Shoeburyness Academy, of Southend in Essex, in the regional quarter final.

The team won all their District Tournament games comfortably and the toughest game was our own second team. We beat King Edward VII to be crowned champions.

Year 9 saw two teams in the tournament and our first team won their three group games, and the semi-final. They drew with King Edward VII  to share the District Championship, The second team won all their groups, but lost the semi-final.

Our Year 10 team was missing several key players but won all the group games before losing in the semi final.

The Year 11 team also won the District Championship to take the title for the fourth time in five years, winning every game comfortably.

Our Marshland Herons won both Year 7 and 8 JNR NBA leagues and four of our five teams won district championships. We now also have a number of players playing national league at the King’s Lynn club.

“As the head coach I am so proud of the basketball programme we run, we have so many youngsters playing the game. Our students are so talented and have a great commitment and motivation to improve and for me, the best thing is the older students helping to coach the younger players and acting as amazing role models,” said Dominic Stannard, PE teacher and coach.

“Every team made great progress and its a massive shame that our Year 7s and 8s did not get the chance to qualify for the regional finals.” he added.

Top point scorers for the year: 

Flynn Hyde        56
James Moore        40
Denis Siurys        34
Amus Urbanas    30
Grantas Domkus    23
Adam Lukosevicius    22
Matas Kairivkstis    21
Aidan Cook        14
Deanna Boon        14
Archer Smith        13