In the first week of the school holidays, the girls and boys basketball teams headed off to Brisbane for the 28th Marist Basketball Carnival. The carnival was hosted by Marist College Ashgrove, and involved 10 girl’s teams and 20 boy’s teams. You can see a video from the Carnival here.
Both BCC teams competed in the true spirit of the Marist tradition, playing to the best of their ability, showing excellent sportsmanship and endeavour, and never giving up.
Several coaches and support staff from other schools made very positive comments about the BCC teams, impressed by the tenacity, skills, effort and spirit with which all of our students competed.
Many of the other schools had current State and Australian representative players who were physically imposing on the court. It is a true testament to the courage and tenacity of the BCC players that they were not intimidated by the 7-foot giants, and pushed them the whole game.
The girl’s competition consisted of a single round robin then finals. The girls won several of their games, and lost some others by close margins. The competitive spirit of the girls’ team was noted by the eventual champion school, having to adjust their game play several times to counteract the BCC offense and coach Bastow’s defensive strategies.
On the final day of competition, the girls played off for final placings, finishing in 8th position.
The boys competition consisted of 4 pool games, cross over pool games, and placing finals.
BCC were unfortunate to draw several very strong teams in our pool, but played with such determination that once again, the much-fancied opposition teams had to adjust their game play to counteract our efforts and skill.
Two narrow losses, a nail biting buzzer beating come from behind draw, and a win saw BCC play in the Plate division, where after some convincing wins and a narrow loss, we played for the chance at the Plate final. Unfortunately, injuries then cost us the win, which resulted in us playing off for 11th and 12th. We then had the opportunity of a rematch against the team that had narrowly beaten us the previous day, and won that game convincingly to finish 11th overall.
Both teams recorded their best results ever in the carnival, and both teams placed higher than their ranking, which is a direct result of the hard work put in at the carnival, and the months of training leading up to the carnival.
BCC were by far the most enthusiastic school at the competition, with both teams supporting each other very positively and energetically.
Ellena Gillett and Clayton Dickinson were the recipients of the Champagnat award, which recognises a player from each team for their positive outlook and team spirit, epitomising the Marist qualities.
The sportsmanship and comradery of all of the BCC players was consistently outstanding, as was their inclusive, friendly manner as they formed new friendships with many students from the other schools.
Thank you to this wonderful group of young people for putting in all of the hard work over the last few months, and congratulations on your efforts and success at the carnival:
Jasmine Barrett (Co Capt.)
Tasmin Birch
Candace Clarke
Nicole Craig (Co Capt.)
Ellena Gillett
Georgie Mitchell (Co Capt.)
Lauren O’Connell
Nicola Van Dijk
Lauren Vincent
Dom Dagostino
Clayton Dickinson (Capt.)
Nick Dinkgreve
Logan Farr
Ben Harris
Craig Kamocha (Vice Capt.)
Finn Rossiter
Griffin Russell
Patrick Wright
A special mention to Mitchell Lawler, who after working extremely hard over the whole trialling and training process, and who showed excellent skill development, unfortunately suffered an injury in the fortnight before the carnival and was unable to tour.
Special thank you to our amazing tour manager Ms Mikala Kemp-Downes whose organisational skills are second-to-none, and to Mr Brad Dunn for managing the boys’ team, and whose bus driving skills are amongst the best around!
Finally, a huge thank you to Tony and Carol Dagostino of Dagostino Homes for their extremely generous sponsorship of the tour.
Both Kelly and I are looking forward to what the future holds for basketball at BCC, and are already in the process of planning future interschool competitions, as well as starting to prepare for the year 9 & 10 winter carnival, and the year 7 & 8 lightning carnival. Be sure to get involved in basketball at BCC when the next opportunity arises.
Ms Kerry Langley (Boy’s coach) and Ms Kelly Bastow (Girl’s coach).
A day by day description:
Marist Basketball Carnival Brisbane
Day 1 update:An early morning start for both teams and the girls had a win before losing the next two.
BCC V St Teresa’s : 22-35 (win)
BCC V Newman : 22-33 (loss)
BCC V Assumption : 26-35 (loss)
Another early start this morning, playing at Ashgrove against Catholic College,Sale (8am), Marist Regional College and Lavalla.
The boys lost straight up, before an absolute nailbiter of a game with a draw. They then lost one and won one.
St Joseph’s V BCC : 43-33 (loss)
Ashgrove V BCC : 39-39 (draw)
Bcc V Sacred Heart : 25-38 (loss)
Marist College Randwick V BCC : 37-46 (win)
Another early start today playing at NAB Stadium.
