Basketball: Tauranga City Coasters local boost

Otumoetai College basketballer Kelcy Ballantyne is one of four Year 13 students in the Tauranga City Coasters team. Photo / File

THE wider Western Bay of Plenty basketball community has received a major boost with the first team to represent the area signed up to play in this year's national Women's Basketball Championship (WBC).

It has been a long time coming but thanks to head coach Rachel Gwerder, assistant Deborah Kuka, team manager Charlene Watene and general manager of Tauranga City Basketball Mark Rogers, the new Tauranga City Coasters team is now a reality.

Watene says the team's impact will be massive for basketball in the Western Bay.

"It is huge because over the years all our really talented elite players have gone away from Tauranga and played for Waikato and for Auckland or North Harbour because we have not had the depth here," she said.

"We have some really talented players coming through our under-11, under-13 and under-15 rep teams and what we want to do is use this team as a role model to say hey there is a pathway beyond under-19s in Tauranga.

"We want to give them the option so they don't have to go somewhere else to play. A number of our top players this year have been approached by other associations to play in their WBC teams. But we have local girls coming back to play now like Rachel Kuka, Justine Kirk and Ngatai Bennett."

Watene is proud they have managed to keep four highly-talented Year 13 school girls in the Tauranga Coasters team.

"They have all come through the grades and have represented Tauranga from under-13s right through. Aquinas College head girl Ellie McManaway is also a rep netballer and volleyballer, Kelcy Ballantyne from Otumoetai College has represented New Zealand from under-15s and is probably our most promising player for making Tall Ferns down the track. Cairyn Rogers from Aquinas College is another talented athlete who has represented New Zealand at all the age groups. Kaatia Watene from Tauranga Girls' College is another who has promise to make national sides.

A special player in the squad is Mikayla Daysh who is on a full basketball scholarship in the US. She has agreed to play for the team for the last two tournaments.