It’s a slam dunk for Perth Grammar team
Pupils celebrate victory at School of Basketball
Perth Grammar School has been celebrating national basketball success.
Year one and two girl students, and year two boys, were crowned Cashback for Communities School of Basketball Festival champions.
The Perth teams lifted silverware at the national performance centre, the Oriam, in Edinburgh.
“School of Basketball is a two-year programme we have been running,” said Perth Grammar Physical Education teacher Russel Kesson.
“There are 12 girls and 12 boys in each squad at S1 and S2 so 48 pupils in total. They do seven on court sessions per week and one study support session.
“Five of the on court sessions happen during class time where the pupils come out of class for these sessions.
“They do one morning workout per week before school starts and one evening workout per week after school ends.
“The program covers strength and conditioning, communication skills, team building, leadership skills, nutrition and hydration, rest and recovery, developing a growth mindset and sport psychology.”
Mr Kesson went on: “The tournament was the first one of its kind for all the ‘Schools of Basketball’ in Scotland, although not all attended.
“There was an S1 tournament which the PGS girls won but the boys tournament was won by another school. This was off the back of our S1 girls also winning the Scottish Cup.
“The S2 tournament was won by both PGS girls and PGS boys. It was supported by the ‘Cash Back for Communities’ fund.
“It was a great achievement for the school to win three out of four of the tournaments.” Mr Kesson, who is also coach at local club Perth Phoenix, believes that the School of Basketball set-up is a beneficial one to move forward with.
He added: “It was interesting from a coach’s perspective to see how the other schools of basketball had been working and how far their students had come.
“For PGS it is a great achievement to have these recent successes and the pupils have taken a lot of confidence from this.
“It has allowed them to see how far they have come physically, technically and tactically in such a short space of time.
“I think the biggest difference between our school and the other schools was the confidence of the players.
“As much as other schools were technically able, it appeared the pupils did not have as much confidence
Perth Grammar School pupils impressed on court at the Oriam in themselves in what they were capable of doing. This benefitted the PGS teams as they were able to cope with the demands of the games better than some of the other teams.
“From the girls side there also appeared to be a slight physical difference in the PGS girls.
“I have chosen to train boys and girls together in six out of the seven sessions they have and I feel that this has helped the girls to be more physically robust and confident in themselves when they play.
“It has also been very important having the support of the parents and carers involved with these young people and making sure that they are attending all their sessions while also maintaining their studies.
“Without their support we would not be able to make the progress that we have so far.”