TWO Tralee schools will take on the names of famous basketball clubs to take part in the first ever Jr. NBA League in Ireland this autumn/winter.
During the summer Tralee Imperials found out they had been one of the lucky thirteen clubs in Ireland to be selected to take part in the league and over the past few months they have been working under the guidance of Basketball Ireland in putting everything in place.
They had to choose two schools to enter the competition and announced them to be Scoil Eoin, Balloonagh and St. Brendan’s N.S. Blennerville.
Today saw the draft take place where each team is assigned the name of an NBA side. Scoil Eoin drew the LA Lakers and Blennerville will be the Memphis Grizzlies.
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Coaches from Tralee Imperials and transition year students from Mercy Mounthawk will be involved in going out to the schools and coaching 5th and 6th class children.
The programme is also designed to help teachers learn about the game even if they have never been involved in the sport before.
Over the coming months cluster events will be held whereby both schools will come together for skills sessions and to play games against each other.
The Jr. NBA league will culminate with the Festival of Basketball on 12th December in the National Basketball Arena. On the day there will be a NBA Ambassador there to do a clinic and the teams will engage with some skills and drills as well as playing games.
The aim of the Jr. NBA is to develop a lifelong passion for the game of basketball in boys and girls by teaching them the fundamentals of the sport in a fun way while instilling core values including teamwork, respect and sportsmanship.
