Wow! What a weekend that was at the GB Maxiballers Elite Men’s Training Camp 3, with the GB Maxis’ coaching team starting to move things towards the business end of team selection for the FIMBA Maxibasketball European Championships 2022 in Malaga. Despite the summer holiday period, birthday celebrations, weddings and whatever else came with the easing of Covid restrictions, 90+ players and 20 staff members were brought into a Covid-safe camp environment on 21 & 22 August in Sheffield.
As awareness of the GB Maxibasketball national programme continues to grow, we welcomed several new players into camp, plus some new staff members. Among those were GB international MIKE TUCK (Sheffield Sharks) and former BBL/international centres BARRY LAMBLE and SIMAN STEWART; and former Scotland internationals and City of Edinburgh Kings sibling players GRANT & CAMPBELL FLOCKHART. Also jetting in from Europe was pocket rocket JAMES CHONG (Sardinia) and former Birmingham Bullets junior OMAR BUGAIGHIS (Barcelona). Finally there was a UK homecoming from Israel for former England junior & senior international SAM STILLER.
However, GB Maxibasketball is not solely about providing the opportunity for elite masters to play for Great Britain. Running in parallel is a programme of individual development for coaches and performance support staff. The programme offers valuable mentoring and continuing professional development opportunities for those just starting out on their chosen careers paths, and also for those looking to broaden their experience of working within a performance-led environment but with a different age group. As such, we were delighted to welcome into camp DARREN OAKEY (Head of National Team Coaching, Basketball NI) and physiotherapist SEAN PRETTY, currently on rotation in the NHS. We hope they enjoyed their first camp; we appreciate their time and support and we look forward to seeing them at the next one.
Huge thanks to our coaching and performance support team, and to All Saints Sports Centre for hosting the camp. #maxibasketball #gbmaxis #talentpathway #roadtomalaga2022 @Basketball England @basketballscotland @Basketball Wales @BasketballNI
