St Anne’s and Loreto Convent win the Randy Haefner Interschool Basketball Tournaments

The Gibraltar interschools basketball tournament took place on Friday afternoon, starting earlier than usual at 2pm. The participation of the Hebrew School prompted a request for fixtures to be brought forward, allowing the young players to finish before 6pm.

Organised in association with the Gibraltar Amateur Basketball Association, the Tercentenary Sports Hall was at the centre of all the action. Three small courts set across the main hall allowed for a greater number of matches to be played, with this year’s competition adopting a four-a-side format in line with the GABBA junior leagues. Matches were played over two eight-minute periods, with only a very short break at half-time.

St Anne’s, St Bernard’s, Bishop Fitzgerald, St Joseph’s, the Hebrew School and Loreto Convent all presented teams for both the boys’ and girls’ tournaments, although the Hebrew School was unable to field a girls’ team.

The first hour and a half of play saw the stands populated mainly by relatives and players, with most pupils still at school during what was a rainy part of the weekend. This changed later in the afternoon, as the end of the school day signalled the arrival of pupils from across several schools, along with parents, to watch the final rounds of the tournament.

The sports hall was once again buzzing with activity as interschool events filled the stands, highlighting the importance of maintaining what has become a tradition stretching back decades in the sporting calendar.

There were several closely contested encounters, particularly among the girls’ teams, with scorelines often separated by just two points, adding to the excitement of the day.

After a week in which schools had been forced to cancel games sessions due to inclement weather, the interschool basketball tournament helped bring back some of the sporting activity that had been missing from children’s routines. With strong winds temporarily easing and rainfall reduced to a drizzle, it was play as normal at the Tercentenary Sports Hall as basketball brought the school sporting week to a close.

One of the more interesting anecdotes of the day saw Gibraltar’s senior national basketball head coach face his counterpart from the youth national team, as St Bernard’s School took on St Anne’s in one of the opening matches. The tournament also saw indoor drone technology used for the first time, with matches being filmed from the air.

Basketball, which this year has also included the Hoops for Schools competition, continues to be one of the more popular sports in schools, with some institutions running their own inter-house leagues from which players are eventually selected for interschool competition.

Among the coaches were teachers who have also represented their countries internationally across a range of sports including basketball, volleyball, football and rugby, adding to the calibre that exists within the education system for the development of young players across multi-sport programmes.

GABBA provided the umpires and bench officials, while also organising the event on behalf of the Department of Education once again. The annual tournament proved a success, with several highly competitive matches on display.

St Anne’s School went on to win the boys’ tournament, while Loreto Convent claimed the girls’ title. The basketball tournament was named the Randy Haefner Interschool in honour of the late Randy Haefner.