Pumped up young players from across the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Eurobodalla travelled to the Hanging Rock stadium for the session.

Assistant Coach Marnie Crabb said the skills days specifically targeted players in the under 12s division. 

Players are selected from the skills day by the head coach and assistant coach to be a part of the 2017 Basketball Jamboree held in Tamworth in September.

“Some players just love to go and play and learn new skills and don’t want to go further, but most do play in the local representative team, or see it as an opportunity to better their skills to make it into the local representative team,” she said.

“It creates the start of a pathway for the development of players in country areas.

“Basketball New South Wales has certain plays and skills that are required at a state level. Skills days and the Basketball Jamboree give players the opportunity to learn these skills.

“The Jamboree has players from all over NSW selected for a variety of different skills, including athleticism, ball skills and shooting technique.

“The players are put into teams and spend four to five days on skills development and training.

“They get to meet so many new people – a lot of the players get lifelong friends out of it,” she said.

Not every association is selected to hold a skills day, with the next closest associations chosen being in Goulburn and Merimbula.

“We’ve been selected to hold it for the last six years, and players from as far as the Shoalhaven and Illawarra attended on the weekend, as well as local players,” Marnie said.

 “The kids worked hard on the court learning and practising the core skills of basketball and had a great day.”

The team wished to thank the Batemans Bay Basketball Association for hosting the day, Troy Genner, the head coach, assistant coach Marnie Crabb and Toni Cunningham who completed the administration on the day.

Meanwhile,  the local competition resumes next week after a break for the school holidays. Open women play on Tuesday nights while the open men play on Thursdays.

The Under 16 and U18 boys play Mondays, U14 girls play Tuesday, the Youth Girls four on four Wednesdays, U14 boys on Friday and U12 mixed juniors play on Saturday morning. For more information, contact the club on 0417 586 768 or by emailing marniecrabb@bigpond.com.