Canterbury Juniors Rule
Tagged in: Associations
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The national champion Canterbury U21 women made history at the Sport Canterbury Winter Spots Awards, taking out the major Team of the Year prize.
This is the first team award of its kind presented to basketball, in a category dominated in recent years by the successful Canterbury Crusaders and Canterbury NPC Rugby teams. The team was represented on the night by coach Kennedy Hamilton, manager Sandra French, vice captain Natalie Moore, Pip Connell, Hayley Gray and Erin Rooney.
The U21 team had a tremendous year going undefeated at the national tournament in Christchurch during April, beating Otago 71-61 in an all-South Island final. Georgina Richards, Miranda Caldwell, Moore and Rooney were named in the tournament team and Rooney was judged the tournament MVP.
Since then, the team has gone on to reach a multitude of higher honours – Rooney (Tall Ferns, Junior Tall Ferns), Richards (Christchurch Sirens, Junior Tall Ferns), Moore (Christchurch Sirens), Caldwell (US college scholarship), Gray (Junior Tall Ferns), Harriet Fenwick (Junior Tall Ferns), Connell (Junior Tall Ferns, AMP Scholarship winner), Elly Pavel (qualified Romania to European Junior 1st Division championships) and Coach Hamilton (Sirens assistant coach).
Six members of the U21 team were also members of the Canterbury U19 team that won their national championship. They were also finalists in the Junior Sports Team category at the awards night, won by Canterbury U18 hockey.
Rooney was one of three finalists in the prestigious Young Achiever category.
Canterbury U21 Women: Georgina Richards (C), Miranda Caldwell (VC), Natalie Moore (VC), Pip Connell, Alice Balme, Harriet Fenwick, Sarah French, Hayley Gray, Elizabeth Pavel, Erin Rooney, Sam Sanders, Samaria Thompson.
Head Coach: Kennedy Hamilton
Assistant Coach: Russell McCormack
Manager: Sandra French
Canterbury Basketball Association life member John Grocott was a winner of a Sport Canterbury service award.
John has over 40 years involvement in basketball as a player, coach, referee and was a key administrator at both the local level (Canterbury) and nationally with Basketball New Zealand.
He is a life member of Canterbury Basketball, Basketball New Zealand and the Canterbury Basketball Official’s Association, and was heavily involved with the University Basketball Club as both a player and treasurer.
Grocott was a member of the Canterbury Basketball executive for 30 years, including roles as president, treasurer and head of the competitions committee. He was responsible for starting the highly successful Friday night secondary schools League that still runs today and involves over 200 teams.
A member of Basketball New Zealand’s executive for 15 years and auditor, he has refereed since 1970 and is still active today with secondary school leagues. Grocott is a former secretary of the National Basketball Coaches Association and was presented with the 2007 Lance Cross Award for outstanding service to NZ basketball.
Involved with the formation of Sport Canterbury, Grocott is a friendly approachable character and a special individual that has made a huge contribution to the sport he loves.
This was the seventh straight year that Basketball has been honoured with one of the four annual service awards chosen across all the winter sports.
2001 Raewyn Willocks
2002 Cathy Hyland
2003 Bruce Martin
2004 Darrel Flynn-Thompson
2005 Bert Knops
2006 Maurie Henshall
2007 John Grocott
The following people were presented with the basketball category awards, the only sport to nominate in all six categories:
Sportsperson: Jeremy Kench
Young Achiever: Erin Rooney
Sportsperson with a Disability: Jason Roberts
Coach: Kennedy Hamilton
Official: Gavin Zimmerman
Administrator: Paula Wilkinson
