After a delay in sport returning during the back half of this year, the Basketball New South Wales D-League tournament was a welcome relief to our sporting calendar for 2020.
With Covid-19 safety protocols in place, the annual three weekend event was reannaged to comply with government regulations and spread across four weekends which covered four age groups from U14 – U18. The shift to a 4 week tournament (two Sundays per age group, 15s and 16s followed by 14s and 18s) athletes were still able to have a team training session and five highly competitive games despite the change.
With over 320 athletes and 70 coaches from both Metro & Country NSW, D-League was the only opportunity for both regions to compete against one another this year. D-League also provided the necessary opportunity for Talent ID to evaluate athletes for their development within representative and state based programs while also providing education progress for coaches from across the state.
BNSW would like to send a special message of appreciation to all our parents and participants for their willingness to assist stadium staff in complying with said Covid-19 regulations as well as a huge thank you to all staff at Minto Indoor Sports Stadium and Barker College for their continued support.
General Manager of Coaching and Development, Brett Coxsedge was pleased to see the enthusiasm from all participants after working hard to reschedule the tournament after numerous setbacks in 2020.
“Our D-League tournament is a highly regarded event on our High performance calendar each year as it plays a huge role in the development pathway for not only our athletes but also for our coaches and officials,” Coxsedge said.
“It was important to host the event this year because it is a great opportunity for our Country & Metro athletes to play with and against each other which not only creates more growth for learning but assists us in building depth within our junior pathways for years to come. I was pleased to see such a high number of applications and a wide array of talent spread across the state in both our athletes and coaches.”
“I would like to also thank the staff at both Minto Indoor Sports Stadium & Barker College for their aid in implementing Covid-19 safety protocols and their assistance in the numerous date changes we had to comply with as well as Momentum Physiotherapy and Health Services for their help with injury prevention, managing injuries and getting athletes back on court.”
BNSW would lastly like to wish all athletes best of luck with their upcoming representative trials and once again thank the efforts and dedication of the roster of referees/officials that participated over the past few weekends.