An excited bunch of boys headed to Launceston last weekend November the 30^th and December the 1^st as they had qualified for the State Basketball Championships - a fantastic effort! Our team of ten talented basketballers was made up of: Oliver Donnellan, Ryan Dick, Harry Hardstaff, Hayden Kinch, Tobias Jordan, Max Redman, Oliver Rattray, Nash Armstrong, Johnty Dynan and Brooklyn Hill.

Saturday 30^th of November

Our first game was against Howrah, we started nervously and quickly found ourselves down by 8 points however an inspired second half saw us come away with a 10 point win.  Our second game was against Sacred Heart Launceston and again we started slowly and found ourselves down by 12 points and whilst we played a better second half we couldn’t bridge the gap and went down by 9 points. This meant we had to win our third and final pool game against Trevallyn on Sunday morning to advance to the Semi-Final stage.

Sunday 1^st of December

There was no slow start on Sunday morning as the team was able to quickly race to a double digit lead which they maintained until the end, this meant that we had made the Semi-Final stage against Stella Marist. We played a terrific game against Stella with the scores being close all the way through unfortunately we fell short by 3 points. This led to a play off for third and fourth again against Sacred Heart Launceston. We again fell behind by 7 points, however this team through three tournaments this year, have shown great resilience and comradery and we fought back for a well-deserved 3 point win. Final result was that we finished third in the State which is an outstanding effort!

I have been very proud this year to have coached such a wonderful group of respectful and resilient boys who have represented Burnie Primary in all three tournaments with distinction.

Stephen Dome