Young stars on court at last

TOWNSVILLE’S young basketball stars are back on the main stage on which they belong.

Townsville Basketball is hosting the under-14 and under-16 Queensland North Junior Basketball Challenge starting today, and for local players such as Kamryn Fowler, Harper Kyle and Lachlan Baran the threeday tournament couldn’t come soon enough.

The region’s basketball stars were grounded because of the COVID-19 shutdown, but the easing of social restrictions has given Townsville’s hoop talents an opportunity they will take with both hands.

“We want to be the top team and the one to beat, and also get a gold medal,” Townsville Under-14 Lightning player Harper said.

“We have fast people and tall people, we are good on playing defence.”

Townsville under-12 Heat player Lachlan said it was exciting to be back playing representative basketball. “We’re trying to go for gold this year,” Lachlan said.

“We know how to run the plays and our positions, we’ve been running through our plays.”

The tournament will feature sides from Cairns, Burdekin and Mackay, and feature more than 70 games played between 29 teams, with six teams representing Townsville.

Representative basketball returns to Townsville for the first time since March, when the Under-16 Queensland North Junior Basketball Challenge was cancelled just hours before the start of play.

“It was meant to happen Friday night, and we got shut down on Friday afternoon, so that was the start of COVID-19 for us,” Townsville Basketball player and coach development officer Peter Crawford said.

“A lot of hard work has been done … and we’re covering everything done that we have to abide by with Queensland Health to be COVID safe.”