After a long basketball drought for Special Olympics being held in South Auckland schools, a basketball event was able to be held across eight secondary schools at the end of Term Two.
The event – supported by Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) and Auckland Basketball – was held at the end of June at Takanini’s Bruce Pulman Arena. This saw 21 basketball teams registered from eight South Auckland secondary schools and over 150 children participating in fun basketball activities, including a Special Olympics 5-on-5 basketball tournament.
BBNZ Community Lead for South Auckland, Tori Williams says that this was the first basketball event held for these students in over two years.
“It was great to be given the green light to go ahead with this event, now that the covid cloud has lifted – we’re finally able to bring some sunshine to these intellectually disabled student’s days,” says Williams.
The referees and scorekeepers for this event came courtesy of over 20 student volunteers from Manurewa High and South Auckland Middle School, which Williams says made a huge difference on the day.
“A big shout out goes out to the referees from Manurewa High, who did such a great job to raise the standard with patient and clear communication to explain their calls to the students.
“It was a really successful event overall and BBNZ was proud to collaborate with Special Olympics and Auckland Basketball on this – both to raise the profile of this fantastic sport, and to provide basketball-specific training in secondary schools.”
Find out more about BBNZ’s work in the community here.
