School Nationals

A tournament for top secondary school teams from the around the country, organised by Basketball New Zealand. Schools can only participate if they have attended qualifiers and finished in a qualifying spot. At the end of nationals there will be a boys’ and girls’ team that are crowned as national champions.

For 2026 School Sport New Zealand have made some changes to their eligibility rules & regulations.

All of the SSNZ eligibility regulations & important documentation can be found here.

• A National Tournament: September 28th – October 1st
• Host Association: Basketball Manawatu
• Venue: Central Energy Trust Arena – 61 Pascal Street, Palmerston North
• Basketball NZ Event Lead: Jay Macdonald | 027 279 8804 | jay@nz.basketball
• Registration Due: TBC

Live Stats will be done for the Top 4 Semi Finals, and Grand Finals for A and AA, in both boys and girls.

The links for these will be posted here before the games are due to be played.

• AA National Tournament: 28 September – 3 October
• Host Association: Basketball Manawatu
• Venue: Central Energy Trust Arena – 61 Pascal Street, Palmerston North
• Basketball NZ Event Lead: Jay Macdonald | 027 279 8804 | jay@nz.basketball
• Registration Due:

The 2026 Secondary School Nationals Tournament Entry Fee is $ 1,500 + GST.

All BBNZ tournament entry fees for 2026 can be found here

Accreditation for Secondary School Nationals is live. Anyone from your community who is wanting to attend this year’s Secondary School Nationals needs to fill out this accreditation form and agree to adhering a set of policies and guidelines.

As this is a youth event, we have updated guidelines to help safeguard participants, and we also need to protect the commercial rights of the content captured at Secondary School Nationals.

All media and content creators planning to attend are required to complete this accreditation form, which includes reading and accepting specific policies outlining expected standards and behaviours. Please find the link below.

Accreditation link

This link will be live from now until Friday 18 September.

As with last year, we are requiring Police Vetting for those who are able to. Police Vetting needs to be done via an organisation which isn’t always possible. If you’re unable to get Police Vetted, then we require a Ministry of Justice check instead. These can be done via this link.

If you have any questions about this, please reach out to media@nz.basketball.

CoachMate is Basketball New Zealand’s FREE app for coaches, managers, parents and players. The app has a full activity library with over 30 easy-to-follow practice plans and games all with ideas and progressions to make them easier, harder, or just different for your team each week.
With the schedule and team management feature you can also set your team’s practice and game schedules and add all your players and parents to one team chat. And don’t forget the extensive Learn Library with simple tips and tricks including:

• Coaching fundamentals
• How to interact with kids safely
• Getting players to listen
• Benefits of games-based learning
• Inclusion and diversity
• Responding to varied behaviour in children

Download Coachmate here – https://www.coachmate.sport/download-coachmate

The tech meeting will be held in person at the Central Energy Trust Arena.

This will be held at 6:30pm on Sunday the 26th of September at Court 4.

2026 Secondary School Nationals Draw With Scorebench

2026 Secondary School Nationals Draw Letter

Secondary School Nationals is a ticketed event.

There are two ticketing options:

• Day Pass for $7
• Weekly Pass for $25

All spectators will need to purchase a ticket to gain entry into the venue.

Children 10 and under are free

Tickets can be pre-purchased before the tournament here.

Basketball NZ uses GameDay for all of our online draws and results.

All draws and results for school tournaments can be found here.

Alternatively, you can download the GameDay app, and follow these steps:

1. Click on the Tshirt at the bottom of the page
2. Search ‘BBNZ’ under ‘Leagues’
3. Click on BBNZ Schools
4. You can then find the tournament that you are wanting to follow

Glory League will be used at the Secondary Schools Nationals & we have public leagues set up so all game recordings can be viewed at the below links:

AA Boys –

AA Girls –

A Boys –

A Girls –

In 2026 we will have 3 livestream courts for the first 4 days of Secondary School Nationals and then 1 court for days 5 & 6. The games that will be live streamed will be highlighted on the draw.

The live stream links will be available once they have been created.

Alternatively, the games will be livestreamed on the Māori+ YouTube Channel

The Grand Finals for the AA & A Girls and Boys will be broadcast on Whakaata Maori Linear TV.

‘A’ & ‘AA’ Secondary School Nationals 2026 Schools Health & Safety Form

• It is compulsory for all players participating in all age grade (under 19’s and younger) competitions, leagues and tournaments run by BBNZ and its members to wear a protective mouthguard when they are on court and the game is in play
• The No Mouthguard, No Play Policy is to be firmly enforced
• Players are not permitted to share mouthguards
• Mouthguards of any colour may be worn (except in FIBA events where they must be non-coloured/transparent)

Please click here to view the BBNZ Mouthguard Policy.

The Molten BG3850 Composite Leather Basketball is used for all school and association age group tournaments

• Size 6 (Girls) – B6G3850
• Size 7 (Boys) – B7G3850

All photos taken at the 2025 tournament can be found here.

2025 Secondary School Nationals Results Draw

2025 Secondary Schools ‘A’ Nationals 

2025 ‘A’ Secondary School Nationals Final Placings & Tournament Teams

2025 ‘A’ Secondary School Nationals Pool Grids

2025 ‘A’ Secondary School Nationals Finals Grids

2025 Secondary Schools ‘AA’ Nationals 

2025 ‘AA’ Final Team Placings & Tournament Teams

2025 ‘AA’ Secondary School Nationals Pool Grids

2025 ‘AA’ Secondary School Nationals Finals Grids

Contact email:  tournaments@nz.basketball | phone:  (04) 498 5950