Basketball: Barnsley U16 players George and Luke gain England recognition
Barnsley Leaders Junior Basketball Club, whose U16 team attained fourth place in this season’s Basketball England North Conference, their best for many years, has followed up with more achievements during the summer.
The club was top of the all teams Leaderboard for average points, in Barnsley’s Beat the Street initiative and were also top sports team for average points, winning a a trophy and Decathlon sports vouchers.
Two top players in the U16 team, George Hartshorne and Luke Monks have been successful in gaining places on Basketball England’s Talent Pathway and are due to enter the England Development Programme ( Diploma in Sporting Excellence) at Sheffield College in the autumn term.
The club has also gained recognition by Basketball England in their volunteer awards by gaining the media presenter of the year award for Yorkshire (Chris Hartshorne, who has videoed all Leaders games and run the Facebook site) and the children’s coach award (Bert Beaumont).
The club has been recruiting new players since the end of this season and is looking forward to participating in Basketball England’s Regional league at U16 level with a relatively inexperienced but enthusiastic squad and also in the Yorkshire U13 league with a team mainly comprised of underage players.
The autumn term’s action begins with coaching sessions starting on September 10th from 4.45-9.00 at Netherwood Academy and pre-season games against Rotherham Hawks on Saturday September 14th U14s ( tip off 10.30am) and U16s ( tip off 12.00), also at Netherwood Academy.
