[22 MAR 11] CRUSADER NEWS

"Hoops 4 Health" returns.

By Adam Manning, Crusaders press officer

                                                                                  Barr's Hill champions: Southfields Primary School                           

Coventry Crusaders held their first "Hoops 4 Health" basketball competition of 2011 last week as Southfields primary school went undefeated to win the tournament at Barr’s Hill School.

Victories over Radford, Frederick Bird, Stanton Bridge and Spon Gate assured Southfields one of the five places in the local Coventry and Warwickshire finals at Grace Academy on Wednesday 30 March.

St.John Vianney Primary and Good Shepherd Primary have already booked their places in the local finals from their regional tournaments, with the winner of the local final going on to represent Warwickshire in the national finals at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena on Saturday 30 April.

Southfields teacher Dave Roach expressed his delight at his pupils reaching the Coventry and Warwickshire finals, saying it had taught the children to work as a team and boosted their confidence.

Roach told Crusaders TV: “It feels absolutely brilliant. It’s great for the kids because they’ve worked so hard with the coaches and it’s more than what they could have wished for.”

“It’s brought them out as a team more than anything else; they worked together and defended, attacked and talked to each other. They believed in themselves and primarily worked as a team.”  

The basketball tournaments are an end product of the basketball coaching primary school children receive alongside workshops about healthy living. There are five mini-tournaments, including one in Leamington this year as Crusaders have expanded the healthy living programme outside of Coventry to 29 primary schools.

Explaining the programme further, which has been jointly funded by Subway, the Health Improvement Programme partnership between the NHS and Coventry City Council as well as Sport England and CSW Sport, Crusader Foundation director Scott Neely said:

“Hoops 4 Health is an interactive programme based on nutrition and healthy lifestyles where Coventry Crusader players go into primary schools at years five and six.”  

“We start off the programme delivering workshops on nutrition, how the heart functions, fitness and basketball as well as the risks of smoking. And then we follow on from those themes with four hours of basketball coaching in Coventry and six hours in Warwickshire and Solihull in preparation for the regional tournaments.”

“We’ve just had this tournament at Barr’s Hill School, and that follows on with the Coventry and Warwickshire finals at the end of the season, and the winner of that tournament will move on to the national finals.” 

The Coventry and Warwickshire final was due to take place on Sunday 27 March during Coventry Crusaders' final game of the season, yet due to their withdrawal from National League Division One midway through the season, the final was rearranged at a later date.

For more information or to get involved in Hoops 4 Health email Scott Neely on scott@crusaders.co.uk

Click here to subscribe to Crusaders TV

  Main Menu | News | "Hoops 4 Health" returns 22 MAR 2011