After a couple of months training at the Snakepit before school on Fridays, the St Brigid's Basketball team was ready and eager to complete in the 36th Annual Catholic Primary Schools (CPS) Basketball Challenge. This Challenge is the largest statewide Catholic Primary Schools basketball competition.

This year the event was hosted by St Anne's, Holy Spirit and St Patrick's in Albury. It was a huge competition involving over 1000 participants competing in 127 teams from 25 schools, representing 9 dioceses across NSW and ACT - from Taree in the north to Albury in the south and Griffith in the west.

St Brigid's was represented by our Senior Girls Team. This team played very well in three challenging games on Saturday, with some wins and losses recorded. At the completion of the day teams were ranked against all the other schools in their competition and placed into a new draw for Sunday. The Senior Girls team was ranked 19th out of 32 teams! This made it 3rd in Division 3 and the best result we have recorded for a Senior Girls team since we entered this competition. The girls were successful in their first game against Young on Sunday, winning 17 - 8, but were narrowly defeated by Goulburn in the semi-finals.

It was wonderful to see the girls newly-mastered basketball skills on show during the weekend, with some amazing shots made by our players from around the court. Both our offence and deffence improved with each game. Great teamwork was shown by all players as they supported each other throughout their games.

I'd sincerely like to offer a BIG thank you to our parent manager, Mr Jackson, for his organisation and the smooth running of our team over the two days.

Also a BIG thank you to Mr Kouzan and Kacey Kouzan (a former St Brigid's participant in the CPS Basketball) for stepping up to do the score bench for the five games we played over the weekend. 

This was a great community event for St Brigid's. It was wonderful to see parents and families in attendance. Thank you to the parents who supported their daughters and our school over the weekend. I appreciate you both arranging your daughter's participation in the early morning trainings and your organisation during the Challenge weekend.

Congratulations and thank you to these students who committed themselves to weekly training sessions and the weekend itself:

Kyra B, Harper D, Jordyn D, Sally F, Ruby J, Breanna K, Jahzara M and Madi M

A great weekend was had by all those involved both on and off the court.

Ms Sparks