Basketball

PAK’N SAVE ROYAL OAK SENIOR BOYS BASKETBALL TEAM

Under the leadership of Coach Anthony Keung the team developed 3 main goals for the year: to win the open grade, qualify for nationals and to get promoted to the premier grade for 2008. The year started off with the team live-in which was a great opportunity for the team to get to know each other and bring each player closer together. The team trained hard with special guest Coach Brett Goebel, ate, went on a high ropes course, ate again and had too much fun! Pre-season was a good chance to see where they were at and the team showed a lot of potential with strong performances against St Peters College, St Kent’s College and Auckland Grammar. The team fundraised and worked hard to get new playing uniforms and our hard work paid off when we got our new uniforms that inspired us even more. The season started well beating St Peters College, Mt Albert Grammar and Sacred Heart College. The team came together well to perform and win the Auckland Central Open Grade Champions Title! The season could be summed up in one word: UNDEFEATED! Coach Anthony Keung was a key part of our team. He shaped this team from amateurs to champions with his strong knowledge of the game, influential leadership, humble attitude, amazing confidence whether win or lose and inspiring each player to do their best! We also had excellent leadership from co-captains Reid Douglas and Gabriel Nuku helping the players stay strong no matter what and pick it up when necessary. Tournament week 2007! The boys were waiting for this week all year and the boys were ready to ball! We settled into our 5 star hotel where the team made a little home; some lived in luxury and some in “the ghetto”. Our first game was against Westlake Boys high School and unfortunately we fell short losing by 3 points! We then had a victory against Massey High School which boosted our confidence. Auckland Grammar then defeated us comfortably but we still had a chance to make it to nationals against Avondale College. The game against Avondale was tight but we picked it up to win 68 – 61 which secured us a place in the top 6! Our last game was against Rangitoto College which we narrowly lost to finish in 6th place overall and all the boys were outstanding. It was a memorable week with the boys having fun on and off the court. Big thanks to Ms. Saxton and Mrs Ili for feeding this pack of savages, Coach Mr. Keung and Ken Fruean for their help on and off the court. Week 7, 07, WE MADE HISTORY! The first Onehunga basketball team to qualify for the National Secondary Schools Basketball Competition and have a chance to play the best in the country! We achieved our main goal for the year! A big shout out goes to the team, Coach Mr. Keung, Assistant Coach Ken Fruean for all your help on and off the court, Manager Ms. Saxton for your hard work to make everything possible and last but not least Assistant Manager Ben Tuimaseve for making all the noise!

PAK’N SAVE ROYAL OAK U19 GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM

It was a great season for us. We had an excellent new Coach Tere Glassie and some very talented new players. We won our first game 102 – 26 and kept improving from there. The hardest game we had was the final against Mt Roskill Grammar. It was a close game, we were 5-13 down at half-time, but we came back in the end with a win to become the Central Zone Champions! We would like to thank Tere Glassie, our Coach, for volunteering to coach us and being there for us at every one of our practices and games. We would also like to thank our Managers, Ms. Blundell and Mr. Nesbitt for their support. It meant a lot for us to have them in the team. Last of all we would like to thank our Captain Siosiana Cocker and Vice-Captain Sam Glassie for doing a great job and helping to make basketball exciting and fun this year and for pushing us to the limit. Team: Sam Glassie, Lorna McNamara, Matilda Tiakia, Opa Vimahi, Tiffany Lesa, Margaret Glassie, Lynette Stowers, Shantell Glassie, Cerise Ikihele, Nga Glassie

U15 BOYS BASKETBALL TEAM

Our U15 boys Basketball Team started the season with great enthusiasm. With help of some fantastic coaching by Mr Todd the team competed well winning half of their games. Outstanding players were Adam Hao’uli, JR O’Connor, Roman Tawharu-Nixon, Bodee Henare and Clayton Cakau.

PAK’N SAVE ROYAL OAK U15 GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM

Our U15 Girls had mixed season with an overall record of 5 wins and 5 losses. All the girls improved their skills throughout the season with hard work on the court and in training. Our best game of the season was a 65-4 win against Diocesan School for Girls C which placed us in 13th place overall. Team: Portia Aspinall, Chloe Aloua Clarke, Cardell Fitisemanu, Pepe (Sane) Fuataga, Maryanne Funaki, Moeia (Emele) Langi, Sandra Lakopo and Tanya Siligi Sameli.