Young Hornets hitting the mark

Horsham junior basketballers have proved their might against the state’s best country teams.

Horsham Amateur Basketball Association’s under-18 boys and under-16 girls competed at a Basketball Victoria Country division one and two championship in Bendigo at the weekend.

The championship gathered the top 16 teams in country Victoria, from areas such as Ballarat, Shepparton, Wodonga and Geelong, to face-off against each other.

Horsham coach Nicole Lakin said despite the tough competition, the two Horsham teams ‘made their mark’ – the under-18 boys winning two division one games and placing in the state’s top four, and under-16 girls winning the division two grand final and placing ninth.

She said the result was an incredible effort and showed that Horsham teams, despite being from a ‘little country town’, were capable of competing with the best.

“It was an awesome effort by both the boys and girls to get where they did at the weekend,” she said.

“Both these teams have put endless hours in on the court to get these rewards, so it’s a great outcome for them and also for the junior kids to look up to and know that this is achievable.

“We’ve always been seen as a Division 3 and 4 team, but now we’ve made our mark.”

Lakin, who coaches the girls team, said she was particularly excited for them to walk away with the results that they did.

“Because of the way the competition is structured, they ended up with probably the toughest draw,” she said.

“But it was a really good result considering the two teams who kept us from getting into division one played against each other in the division one grand final. It means we’re up there.”