Big season ahead for basketballers

The Cook Islands Basketball Federation (CIBF) is gearing up for a bumper 2017 season which kicks off next month. The 2017 season will culminate with the participation of the national men's and women's sides at the FIBA Oceania run Polynesian Tournament in Auckland. CIBF vice-president James Puati said the season would start with the Mixed Jam Business House Competition on May 11. This, he said, would be followed by the premier competition which would serve as a scouting and training ground for potential national basketballers. 'Also in the mix will be consideration for participation of our national 3x3 teams at the Asian Indoor Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. This comes off the back of commendable international and regional performances by the women's and men's teams respectively,' Puati said. 'The CIBF is also exploring development opportunities for the younger players with the Warriors programme scheduled to start around June. Hoops for Kids (H4K) will also start up their skills development programme around that time as well.' With the completion of the recent annual general meeting, election of office bearers and the fine tuning of the code's constitution, the federation now has the necessary components in place to start planning for the six-month season. Puati said this had also been buoyed by the successful incorporated society's application and the conceptual formation of Cook Islands Basketball International. The Cook Islands Basketball International is a CIBF-sanctioned group based in New Zealand charged with promotion and co-ordination of basketball activity for Cook Islanders in New Zealand and having networks through to Australia.
Courtesy of: cookislandnews.com