As another year comes to an end it’s time to look back and celebrate all that we have achieved in the past 12 months. It’s been glittered with events and monumental moments for us as a young club.
In January we started the year working with some of our partnership clubs by running a Level 2 table officials course and also a UKCC Level 1 coaching course to help support numerous levels and ages of basketball. This led directly into the 2019 JR. NBA which once again we were asked to hold and run at Tynecastle High School which gave our young volunteers an opportunity to use their newly acquired tabling skills.
The turn of the year also seen our Club Teams back in action domestically:
- Our U12’s taking part in the Crags Games.
- U14’s competing in the Development side of RDL’s (Regional Development League)
- U16’s in the NDL’s (National Development League)
- Two U18’s teams competing, one in the West League and the other in the East
- The Senior Mens compete in Lothian League at Oriam
(As well as our U8/10’s still training but not playing competitively)
In February we ran our annual February Camp at Tynecastle High School which was supported by our young volunteers, our camps consist of Primary Ages in the morning (9:30-12) and High School in the afternoon (1-4). These camps aim to get kids of any ability involved and enjoying the sport of basketball while learning new things and making new friends each day.
March came and we continued to play the remaining league fixtures for all of the above teams in their respective leagues. Before the start of the 2019 playoffs we managed to squeeze in a trip to watch the WBBL and BBL Finals at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow! The afore mentioned playoffs started with our U18 East team making a surprising entry into the 4th seed as this was their first year at the more competitive level after all playing U16 NDL’s the year before. But sadly the fairytale story wasn’t to be as we fell to a very strong Glasgow City team.
April saw the final games for both our U12’s and our Senior Mens teams. As well as this we had our annual Easter Camp but this time thanks to one of our partnerships with Heriot Watt Basketball Club we used the Oriam.
May was one of the busier months of the calendar as there was many sporting events across the city which our awesome young leaders volunteered to help run such as: Games @ Hub, JR.NBA games, Give & Gain Day, Primary Academy Festival, Cashback 3v3 Festival at the Crags and also the National Cashback School of Basketball Festival. Our young leaders are a vital part of what we do as we believe everyone should be giving back into the community to make it grow bigger and stronger.
The Cashback School of Basketball programme is based in Tynecastle High School and is a programme focused of targeting vulnerable young people to help support them while enhancing both their physical and mental wellbeing.
June & July are typically “off season” months so we kicked off June by having our first ever Awards & Quiz night to celebrate the great accomplishments of all the fantastic young people in our club. Towards the end of June we supported 3 great basketballing events: First Place Bank Shot, an out door 3v3 tournament, Sony Centre Fury U15 3v3 tournament and the Coaches v Referees charity game to raise money for YMCA Edinburgh. Our Summer camp was so popular it was sold out with over 50 kids signed up for the week! It was great to see so many returning faces as well as new faces that have since joined up with the club.
August quickly approached and with it, a new season. We still entered all of the same teams for the new season ahead but this time we had some new coaches who had previously been on our team of young leaders, as well as more experienced coaches coming in through our partnership work. During the off season we got planning a new Edinburgh Schools League which we launched in August 2019 and we successfully had 16 Boys teams and 4 Girls. This league was started to give more opportunities for everyone to be involved with basketball as well as the aim of growing the sport even bigger within Edinburgh.
September saw the first competitive games of the season, the first of which was for our U18’s in the Cup against Ayrshire Tornadoes, this was the first time we have entered the Cup and the Boys did fantastic and walked away with the win to progress into the second round. As well as this all of our other teams started their domestic conquest for the new season. Primary Academy’s also started back with a new cohort of P7’s who received their T-Shirts and bags. We also released our “Why Warriors?” video which demonstrates all the many reasons as to why you might chose to be a Warrior, video below.
Our Primary Academy’s are an extra programme we have set up which follows the criteria and pathway of School of Basketball. We hope to be setting up more of these in the coming year.
October saw the return of JR. NBA again held at Tynecastle being ran and lead by our team of Young Leaders made up of Club Volunteers and School of Basketballers. October saw both our Senior Mens and U14’s pick up their first wins of their early seasons, with both teams improving drastically over summer and nearly doubling in size! As well as this our U16’s began to thrive in their NDL matches with the majority of players still being 14 or younger. As well as all of our Club games we also ran our October Camp in October, this was another well attended camp with lots of happy faces at the end of each day.
November or “Movember” (as the U18’s grew their moustaches out and successfully raised £413 for mens health) started off with a bang as The Co-op members kindly donated £5443 through their local community fund to help support our ongoing work within the Primary Schools. All teams continued their domestic games on fantastic form and for the first time ever we entered our U14 squad into the competitive side of the RDL’s which will allow them to grow better. Our JR. NBA conference and U16 training got a visit from former NBA player Marko Milic. Also our U12’s continued to grow in numbers and both of our U18’s teams went unbeaten in November, with the Caledonia team sitting top of the league winning 5 games and losing 0 going into the new year.
December kicked off with many of our Edinburgh Schools League games taking place with lots of competitive banter between members of our U16’s and U18’s teams. As well as the competitive schools games, our S1 Cashback School of Basketball got together and had a friendly game against Gracemount’s School of Basketball ran by Boroughmuir Blaze. This was before our Primary Academy Schools once again descended upon Tynecastle for their Christmas festival.
The previous year once again has been one of growth with now almost 200 active members, learning and fun. The Warriors would just like to thank everyone for their help and involvement with us this year with hopes and aspirations on us continuing to do what we do into the new decade.
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2020.
West Edinburgh Warriors 