Ashburton College’s 3×3 basketballers are heading to Tauranga for the nationals next month. Photo Jaime Pitt-MacKayWhen Ashburton College’s 3×3 basketball teams head to the 3×3 nationals next month, they’ll be kick-starting a huge season of basketball for the school.

The school looks set to follow up a year where the number of kids playing the sport was bigger than ever before, with an even bigger year.

Ashburton College coach Mark Douglas said basketball has been growing in popularity to the extent that it is now the number two sport in schools, second only to netball, and it’s forecast to be number one by next year.

“We are definitely part of that trend, it’s been awesome,” Douglas said.

Last year, Ashburton College had 110 players trial for teams, and this year they’ve had 130.

“We had a 20 per cent increase in people turning up to trial and have got on board with Basketball Mid Canterbury, so we are now capturing all the kids who want to play, and giving them that opportunity to play,” Douglas said.

That will include running a local secondary school level competition which will not only give everyone a chance to play, but also be an opportunity to develop future referees, Douglas said.

He said a couple of years ago Ashburton College had about five teams, and this season they are likely to have 11 or 12.

That includes the senior girls who will again compete in the Canterbury secondary schools’ Whelan Trophy competition, and the senior boys, who will take part in the Thompson Trophy.

Those competitions won’t kick off until term two, but the college’s 3×3 teams will be in action next month.

Ashburton College has a senior A girls’ team, a junior A boys’ team and a development junior team heading to the nationals in Tauranga at the end of March.

“I have high expectations of the junior A boys as a pretty strong outfit, so we are going in with high hopes,” Douglas said.

The school will take four players in each team to the tournament, which will involve around 120 teams all up.

The 3×3 version of the sport is on the up all over New Zealand, with a Japanese league recently announcing New Zealand will be added to a global competition along with Korea and Thailand.

Auckland will host a North Island conference, while Christchurch will host a South Island conference, each of which will consist of six teams which will play over eight rounds from May to August.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 22 February 2019