Basketball competition to start for under 12s

THE current Orange District Basketball Association junior competition can be described in only one way, as “rubbish”.

ODBA representative Andrew Duncan claims not offering any form of basketball to younger kids, which is currently the situation, often means they’re lost to the sport until they are 16 or of senior age.

Now that’s about to change.

From this Tuesday the ODBA will offer a three-on-three competition for any children of primary school age and Duncan believes this is the the best way of getting the association’s juniors back.

“It is rubbish at the moment, there isn’t really anything. Hopefully the new competition is going to generate some interest from the younger ages. Basically we are just trying to get kids back playing the game,” Duncan said.

“We’ve just started up an under 14s competition, which is going pretty good, and now we are targeting the primary school children to play basketball.”

Scheduled to be played at the new Anzac Park facility Duncan is hopeful the under 12s competition can replicate the senior basketball competition on a Monday night, which sees the facility full of basketball players every week.

“On a Monday night it is full here and we know that there is a long way to go but we should be able to see the same thing happen with the juniors,” he said.

“We are really keen to get something going for the younger guys.”

The new competition will start this Tuesday afternoon at Anzac Park and Duncan is encouraging anyone who has an interest in the sport to attend.

“We’d like as many as we can get. If anyone wants to play basketball we will accommodate them,” he said.