SPRING is the time for fresh ideas and building towards bright futures and the Jersey Basketball Association is no exception, as they continue to look for opportunities for young players to improve their game.
In early March, the U15s and U17s boys travelled to Bruz in Brittany, France, to play against their counterparts at the AL Bruz Basketball Association. The weekend consisted of a training camp and match fixtures set up by the JBBA coaches and committee.
Guillaume Hoareau, a member of the Jersey Basketball Association’s committee, Junior Basketball coach and an Island Games representative, explained the reasons behind the trip: “As a committee we want to give our young basketball players every opportunity to improve their game and have pride in representing their home island, playing a sport they love.
“Unfortunately, in our modern society, the opportunities for youngsters to socialise and learn a skill is very quickly becoming eroded. More investment is needed to support associations like ours to help promote a healthy and active lifestyle and build our community over the long-term.”
The weekend started with a professional French National 1 third-tier division league game between Rennes and Le Havre to inspire the young Jersey players. The training camp itself was hosted at Bruz’s dedicated training centre, which has multiple sports halls to split training sessions and abilities, as well as join groups together.
“This is a luxury that we don’t have in Jersey,” Hoareau continued.
“Our training sessions are spread across multiple sites, which can be a disadvantage when we want to mix groups up and give them more opportunity to play each other.”
Both the U15s and U17s worked on defensive fundamentals, an underappreciated set of skills that players need to develop if they are to be competitive.
Hoareau added: “Surprisingly, the Jersey players came back from the session with a smile on their face and the feeling they learnt more.
“Feedback from the Bruz coaching staff was that they found our players were very focused and keen and didn’t underestimate the hard development work that the JBBA coaches have put into these teams.”
In the afternoon, Jersey played games against their Bruz peer teams who are involved in the domestic leagues and competitions. Jersey got some very good results, not only in the final scores, but also in their technique, demonstrated in the intensity and discipline displayed during the games. Jersey’s flagship U15 and U17 teams won their games and, although the U15 development team lost one match, their effort and generally clean delivery made the Jersey coaches proud.
Sunday saw another round of training before heading back to Jersey. This time the Bruz coaches taught spacing and court awareness from an offensive perspective.
Hoareau concluded: “Overall, the Bruz staff were impressed by the dedication, consistent effort and passion of our kids.
“They were pleased to see three girls on the teams, especially because they all wanted to play and be part of every drill.
“They made special comments about a couple of our older boys for their athletic capabilities and skill levels, as well as their potential growth as players which was very encouraging.”
One of the other aims of the weekend was to give the young players the opportunity to get to know each other better, build team camaraderie and a sense of community.
“The players, who attend different schools, don’t usually get the opportunity to socialise with each other outside of training. So alongside the training, they spent time getting to know each other, while they did chores in our hostel and tested out their basic knowledge of French, which was funny to listen to, but I was pleased they made the effort!
“Our coaches left the games with the feeling that we are building a bright future for the sport on the Island. We all made a lot of notes and came out with fresh ideas and ambitions to develop further at our Jersey-based training.
“This type of activity is an essential platform needed to develop our local talent but it can only yield long term benefits to the island if it is both sustained over the years and repeated several times a year.
“We hope to travel to Bruz once a year and continue to build a partnership with the club. The first step is a three-day tournament that our senior men’s team will be playing in June for the end of the season against four other teams from Brittany and Normandy.”
