Carmel College will be heading to the Schick Secondary Schools National Championships after all.
Carmel was disappointed to finish eighth at the Zone 1 Premierships tournament in Auckland last week and with only seven teams qualifying thought their bid for a trip to the major event on the Secondary Schools basketball calendar had been thwarted.
Carmel lost 90-60 to St Mary’s Ponsonby in the critical 7th/8th play-off game at North Shore Events Centre last Saturday. However they have since been thrown a lifeline with St Mary’s opting to withdraw from the National Championships.
Carmel’s qualifying campaign was thrown into disarray with the unavailability of a number of players. A total of six players missed all or part of the Premierships including influential Harbour U19 representative Millie Simpson.
Tayla Dalton had an outstanding tournament but even she only played in half of the games. Her scoring feats were well documented in a nice article in the Sunday Star Times last weekend. read story here
Carmel coach Gareth Teahan is pleased his team has the opportunity to appear on the national stage. “The team is delighted to attend Nationals. We will have a full strength squad available and hope to make a strong showing at the tournament.”
Carmel finished sixth in the Auckland Premier Grade in the recently completed season and will be hoping that first foray in top flight basketball for a number of years will stand them in good stead next month.
With the majority of players only in Year 11 2017 may just be a reconnaissance mission with bigger things anticipated in 2018 and 2019.
The other six girls teams that have qualified for Nationals from Zone 1 are Auckland Girls Grammar, Westlake Girls High, Mt Albert Grammar, Massey High, Rangitoto College and St Kentigern College.
The Schick National Championships will be held in Palmerston North from October 2nd to 7th.
LACEY LOWDOWN 