The new Cooktown U14 basketball team has a fire in the belly for more on-court showdowns after competing in its first official competition in Cairns last week. Photo: Facebook.
A group of young Cooktown basketballers are hungry for more competition after a year of training came to fruition during their first away game in Cairns last week.
The under-14 rookies left it all on the court when they took on Port Douglas and Mulgrave, battling first-game nerves, and being defeated by just one point against the region’s top team in their second game.
Team volunteer Jessica Gibson-Chung said it was their first time the boys has played together as an official team, adding parents and coaches had rallied to help take their game to the next level.
“They’d never done a competition before, just muck-around type of games at training – nothing with scoreboards or referees or anything,” she said.
“It was really last minute, so it was a lot of running around; we knew about the competition but we hadn’t organised a game.
“All of the coaches agreed that if we could get a team together, we could go down, so I reached out to basketball parents and asked if any of them had the capacity to drive the boys down and help out.”
The team was formed with boys who attended training sessions held twice a week at PCYC Cooktown.
Ms Gibson-Chung said game one against Douglas Heat was a new experience full of nerves, especially with the large age range of Cooktown’s team.
“The boys were pretty pumped up but very, very nervous,” she said.
“Because our population is small, we don’t have enough players in each age group; we took an under-14s team, but the youngest we had on the team was 11.
“Usually, an under-14s team would be 13 to 14, so it was a bit of a challenge, especially for the younger ones.”
Despite being defeated this time, Ms Gibson-Chung said the experience was invaluable for players, who don’t usually get the opportunity to compete in official competitions due to the tyranny of distance.
“Competition is important to keep the kids engaged; they need a reason for all the training,” she said.
“The boys did a lot of reflection on what they did well, what they could do better, and had a lot of respect for training and what they’re doing it for.
“They’ve definitely got some fire in their belly to go and play away a lot more now.”
