Having represented the victorious Hertfordshire Under 13’s in the Inter-County Basketball Tournament in April, 2015, I was selected for the provisional 25 man East of England squad.

After a rigorous two month selection process involving day-long training sessions all over the East  (Ipswich, Chelmsford, St Albans, etc ), strength and conditioning programmes and skills assessments, I finally made it into the East of England team for the Regional Development Tournament in Sheffield.

The tournament took place over the weekend of the 4-5^th July at the All Saints Basketball Academy.

We were undefeated on Day 1, comfortably beating the West Midlands, South West, North West and South East on our way to topping our group.

A night of team building and tactical planning followed, before a semi-final meeting with the East Midlands. Once again we won convincingly and the East were through to the final.

The final was a repeat encounter with the North West who had managed to beat the other group winners and pre-tournament favourites, London, in the second semi.

However, the final was a one-sided affair and we won all four quarters comfortably to take the trophy and be crowned National Champions.

Personally, I believe the reason that we won was our extremely close relationships within the team. We are all great friends and get on really well. We stayed together  in the hotel in rooms with our teammates, and this really added to our bond. We all got on with the coach massively, and hugely respected him.

In summary, this has been a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience – one which I intend to repeat next year after even more hard work, dedication and commitment.

Will E, Year 7