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Basketball talent thrives as South Wilford Primary and Nottingham Emmanuel School join forces
An abundance of highly talented basketball players at The Nottingham Emmanuel School who started their sporting interests at South Wilford Primary School is gaining ground in the local and national sporting arena.
The occurrences are no fluke, says Nottingham Emmanuel School Principal Derek Hobbs.
“I have been thrilled to hear about and see for myself the proud heritage of top-quality basketball players passing through both South Wilford and Emmanuel. Having a critical mass of hard-working, high-quality players, together with equally committed, expert coaching, seems to have made all of the difference. It's a joy to see these young people enjoying the facilities here at Emmanuel, training hard and bringing back so much silverware from City and County competitions.”
Recent success stories include Oliver Sporton (age 15yrs) who has played in the national league for Nova and represents Nottingham County as well. After being selected to play for East Midlands in 2014, Oliver’s team competed against all of England’s finest and won. He will now try out for the East Midlands Under 16 Tournament in September.
Charlie Marsh is another successful player and has been selected to play for the East Midlands squad. He says his initial break came when playing in his first local league match when he was spotted by a Nottingham Nova Coach who asked him to try out for a national team! Charlie also has an impressive training regime. For two years straight he came into school at 7:30 am every morning and trained for an hour before his school day started. He also continued playing at after school clubs and now has added gym time to his gruelling schedule. Charlie’s dream is to play professional basketball.
Captain of Nottingham Emmanuel’s Year 8 basketball team, Joshua Smith (age 13yrs) took his team to victory for the past two years at both city and county levels, and has also been selected for East Midlands basketball and is an England hopeful after being selected for the Regional Development Programme. Joshua credits the continuation of good training, starting at South Wilford and continuing at Emmanuel for his progress. “I really became interested in basketball at South Wilford and was able to continue my training at Emmanuel. This has meant I effectively double up my court time when added to evening and weekend training. The teachers at Emmanuel have always given up their spare time to help us. Mr Jackson, here at Emmanuel has been a really big help and I would say that without his coaching and support none of us would be doing this well. I like him a lot he’s a big help!” Joshua wants to be a pro-basketball player in the future and has his sights set on making the England team first.
Talent does run in families and Joshua’s younger brother Ben is the youngest in the group and still attends South Wilford Primary School. He says he intends to catch the older boys up, but is keeping his options open. “I like football too! I’m good with my left but better with my right!”
Joshua has some advice for younger players. “In year 6 I think it was clear that I wasn’t as good as I could be. I think if that’s the case you just have to keep working hard, don’t let anyone stop you. That’s what I did and I am really happy with where I am now.” Oliver agrees, “You have to be committed, the only time I’m not playing is one night a week. I want to go and play in Spain where I have trained before in Malaga. I think if you enjoy it and you work hard -you can do it.”