Basketball: Love of game makes hoop dreams

Welcome Bay school Te Kura Kokiri's national basketball champs, left to right, Aniwa Nicholas, Winirangi Nicholas, Ripeka Nicholas, Ihipera Ferris, Mark Nicholas (coach), Sally Kurei, Manaakitanga Nicholson (capt), Tainakore Tapiata, Ngahiraka Walker, Kanapa Kerr, Rawi Nuku (assistant coach). Photo / Andrew Warner

To win a national secondary schools title in any sport requires outstanding training facilities, the best coaches and large numbers of students to select from.

But a tiny Welcome Bay school has proved determination to make a real difference in their community and love for the game can overcome any odds against them.

Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Kura Kokiri won the SAS Secondary Schools National Championships girls A basketball title in Palmerston North on October 4. The school has a roll of 80 pupils, with just 12 secondary girls to pick from. The school's basketball hoops are in the carpark, on uneven concrete with no markings, but from such humble surroundings true legends are made.

They went undefeated through the week-long tournament to win the A section for schools with a roll of 600 pupils or less. Waihi, St Mary's (Stratford), St Kevin's (Oamaru), Te Aroha and Buller were all beaten before they triumphed 86-60 over Opunake in the final.

Coach and school principal Mark Nicholas said they now have a national sporting title to celebrate alongside some outstanding academic results for the Year 1-13 total immersion school founded in 2000.

"Having small numbers is key and having targeted directions allows us to advance our kids much further than at bigger schools I think," Nicholas said.

"It is all about our rebellion against failure. These kids work so hard and that is a key reason for their success.

"The whole school plays basketball. We have identified basketball as being the best game that suits us because of numbers as well as being able to tailor make strategies to suit your team. We took out the Tauranga girls' competition in 2002 against the big schools like Tauranga Girls' and Bethlehem College.

"The bulk of our team has been together for three years but this hasn't been the best season for us. But prior to the nationals we refocused and relooked at our strategies. We built up faith in ourselves. We could do it and it just grew and grew during the week. We were relentless and I said we could have won the AA division if we had played like that."

There were also individual awards to savour. Sally Kurei, Ihipera Ferris and Tainakore Tapiata were selected in the tournament team with Sally named as tournament MVP player. The three players all attended the first Junior Tall Ferns camp held in Auckland recently.

Year 12 student Kurei, 17, said no words could really explain how she felt about the tournament win.

"Me and the other two girls who made tournament team would not have got to where we are now without our team. To be MVP, I was shocked and it is a massive honour. We wanted to do it for our family, our mokopuna, other kura kaupapa and for te iwi Maori."