Kapiti Hoop Club Well Represented – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

Big basketball tournament in the Hutt

By Angelo Robinson

Hoop Club Kapiti recently took part in one of Wellington’s biggest junior basketball tournaments.

Hoop Club Hutt Valley organised and hosted this year’s junior basketball tournament on Saturday 11. November.

This all-day event proved so popular with 53 teams participating that the organisers had to book a second venue.

A great day for everyone

And what a great day for our juniors it was! We were able to send three teams:

our youngsters (8’s & under with Coach Mark Ireland – Spicer) played their games at St. Patricks College in Silverstream,
our 10’s & under (Coach Ben Maligieri) as well as 14’s & under (Coach Jake Henehan) scored their hoops at Walter Nash stadium in Taita.

You could tell there was real excitement in the air, as some parents not only supported their kids during the games, but eagerly used their phones to keep track of our teams playing at the other venue.

Kapiti players lived up to the challenge

Players, parents and coaches alike were very pleased with how we represented Kapiti at the tournament.

It was amazing to see how the juniors applied their basketball skills in the context of a “real tournament”.

Players and teams lived up to the challenge particularly in some very tight games, with the deciding points scored in the final seconds.

What a thrill to see our juniors growing in confidence and as a team.

Hoop Club founders get together

Hoop Club Founders – Angelo, Kenny & Terry

Last but not least, the tournament was also a chance for the three Hoop Club New Zealand founders and coaches to catch up.

Angelo Robinson (Hoop Club Kapiti)
Kenny McFadden (Hoop Club Wellington)
Terry Stallworth (Hoop Club Hutt Valley).

We would like to thank the organisers for a great event and are really looking forward to seeing you a

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STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti Coast councillors have toured of one of Aotearoa's unique buildings, the heritage - listed Rotunda at the former Otaki Health Camp, the country’s first.

Jeremy Smith reports that the 105-year-old, eight-sided rotunda predates the Health Camp.

It wasn't actually built in Otaki, but was one of two built in Rotorua in 1915 as part of a military hospital, on the site of Rotorua’s present public hospital.

Later they were taken to Otaki for the opening of the health camp in 1931.

Full story in the main column (December 19).

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.