Basketball: Tamworth teams pepper grand finals at Port Macquarie Seaside Classic

And upon the conclusion of the 2022 edition, Tamworth Basketball Association president, Scott Ward, could not have been happier.

Not only did Tamworth teams qualify for grand finals in six of the eight divisions played, they won two (under 13s men and under 17s men).

"That's better than we'd expected," Ward said.

"We'd only picked our teams the weekend before, most teams had had two trial sessions ... so the teams were all brand new."

The weekend was not only an opportunity for the coaches to come to grips with their squads for the upcoming year, it also marked the first time many of the players had the chance to take buses to the venue instead of being driven individually by their parents.

Hiring buses is not something the TBA has done for several years, Ward said, and it did so hoping that the players would benefit from the extra time with their teams.

"All the kids traveled on the buses and they all stayed in the same location," he said.

"It was really good for team bonding and for the kids getting to know each other."

Ward relayed stories about some of the kids even opting to spend time with their teammates over their parents, which he said was "what we were looking for".

"[We wanted] to have them in that situation, to hang out with their teammates, to build a bond there," Ward said.

"That's going to be really important for our rep program next year."

Seeing the association's young up-and-coming talent in play over the weekend filled Ward with hope, as both the junior men and women's squads look to be getting deeper with each passing year.

"The boys' program is looking outstanding," Ward said.

"We will probably have a team that goes to the junior premier league, which is the toughest competition available to us, and then our division one team will at least be strong enough to be in contention for that title as well.

"The 18 women's team ... it's a younger team, but there's a lot of skill there, so they look really promising. I really like where we're going with our girls' program, the depth of talent there is looking a lot stronger."

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