Young Basketball Players from Northumberland Play at the Eagles New Home
Young basketball players were recently provided with a fantastic opportunity to play an inter area basketball competition at 'Sport Central', a £30 million purpose built sports facility in the heart of Newcastle and new home to the Newcastle Eagles. Organised by the Newcastle Eagles Community Foundation, participants were selected from Northumberland's Sport Unlimited basketball activity programmes to compete prior to the Eagles recent home game against Guildford Heat.
Sport Unlimited, managed by Northumberland Sport, is an exciting national programme, targeting 'semi-sporty' young people as part of the Government's drive to get more young people involved in sport outside of school between the ages of 10-19 years. As an incentive for young participants across the county, Northumberland Sport teamed up with the Eagles Community foundation to provide over 50 young people from the Morpeth, Ashington and Ponteland areas of Northumberland to compete in a round robin format competition.
This inaugural competition was really well received by all participants, with the winning teams from Ponteland and Morpeth both receiving prize medals and goody bags for their efforts, which were awarded as part of the half time entertainment.
Neville Duncan, Sports Development Manager with Northumberland Sport said: "I would like to thank the Newcastle Eagles Community Foundation for supporting the Sport Unlimited programme in Northumberland and providing this tremendous opportunity to some of our young participants involved in the basketball programmes. I know all the young people who attended had a great time, especially with the Eagles winning and really appreciated the time spent on court, which will hopefully have raised their confidence and encouraged them to keep on playing."
Northumberland Sport will continue to work closely with other sports and organisations to offer similar incentives for young people. In addition to these incentives all the young people who take part in activities across Northumberland during 20010/11 and attend a minimum of 6 sessions are being entered into a draw to win an iPod Touch other prizes worth up to £100. This is just another way we are trying to encourage young participants to attend enough sessions to inspire and motivate them to continue in the activity
For more information about opportunities in Northumberland and about the Sport Unlimited programme, please visit the Sport Unlimited pages.
