APRIL’S State PSSA Boys’ basketball carnival will mark the beginning of a new era for North West.
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For the first time in a number of years they won’t have the towering presence of one of the Maluach boys.
The Drummond Memorial Public School brothers have been a big part of the zone side’s success in recent years.
With their help, North West has finished first, fifth and second the last three years.
The side to contest this year’s carnival was selected last week and includes two of last year’s side in Nemingha’s Jack Dawson and Tamworth Public’s Connor Watt.
Watt is one of four TPS players in the squad.
They lead the way, closely followed by South Tamworth with three.
“I was really happy with our numbers. There were a lot of kids to pick from,” coach Jono Willis said.
“Obviously there were a few standouts but there were definitely a lot of kids there who have a lot of potential.”
“They’ll be good for us when we go away.”
That will be from April 28-30 in Wollongong.
Willis hopes to see them at least once beforehand.
He’s got a training session planned during the Easter
holidays.
The focus of that will be getting some structures in place for when they go away.
As is the case every year with the turnover of players, they will have to tweak their game.
One of the most obvious differences this year is they won’t have the height they have had in recent years.
“We certainly won’t be as big as last year, won’t be as tall,” Willis said.
“We’ll probably be a little bit more guard-orientated.”
The girls will go away two weeks later.
They’re off to Berkely.
Jade Dunlop is stepping up to coach them.
She had around 30 girls trialing for the 10 spots.
After some skills to get started, the four zones then played each other in a round robin.
It gave Dunlop a good chance to look at the players in a game situation.
The team will be relatively green with not many of the girls having a lot of rep experience.
“There’s two girls who play rep basketball –two really strong girls,” Dunlop said.
“The good thing about that is it will pull the other girls up.”
She’s hoping to get a couple of training sessions with them before the go.
NORTH WEST BOYS: Connor Watt, William Burton, Jack Dadd, Bailey Keech (Tamworth Public), Bayley Lassock, Mark Ocampo, Joey Mead (South Tamworth), Archie Thistle (Quirindi Public), Oliver Thomas (Gunnedah South), Jack Dawson (Nemingha).
