adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
IT will be hive of activity tomorrow when schools from different provinces converge at Kwekwe High for the Nash Top Schools basketball tournament this weekend. The two day-event is pencilled for tomorrow and Sunday with participants fighting for honours in the boys and girls sections.
Prince Edward School and Girls High are the defending champions in the boys and girls categories respectively.
Basketball Union of Zimbabwe competitions director, Simon Lawson, said they were looking forward to a tough competition.
“It’s tricky this year, looking at the boys, there is Goromonzi, Prince Edward and Churchill. It’s going to be tough for them, especially Prince Edward.
“Cornway has been promising because most of their players have been competing in the National Youth Games.
“In the girls section, Girls High looks promising to defend their title.
“If you look at the girls playing in that team they are rated number two in the BUZ championships, they now have exposure more than any other school but we are not taking anything away from Mufakose 2 and Goromonzi.
“For the boys it’s going to be an open tournament,” said Lawson.
Lawson said the event, which has been held over the years, is a platform for identifying talent and it has produced some of the country’s top players such as Vitalis Chikoko who is now based in Germany.
“In terms of player development we have Vitalis Chikoko, who is now playing in Germany, there is Patrick Nhamburo from Prince Edward who is now in Canada and we can say a lot of players, like all the girls in South Africa playing for colleges and universities, were identified through this programme.
“It’s a competition we use to identify talent and develop it for national teams. If you look at the national team going to Maputo most of the players came through this system, they played top schools basketball.
“Since 2009 we have had a full house. School teams now look forward to this event. At one time two years ago we wanted to postpone the competition but schools said no, we want to play even if there is no money we will foot the expenses,” said Lawson.
All teams are expected to be in Kwekwe today for the technical meeting. The teams will be divided into four pools in both the boys and girls sections and the top two teams from each group will progress to the quarter-finals.
The semi-finals and finals are set for Sunday morning.
Teams
Boys:
Kwekwe High (Midlands), Prince Edward School (Harare), Loreto High (Midlands), Churchill Boys High (Harare), Goromonzi High (Mashonaland East), Cornway College (Mashonaland West), Chipadze High (Mashonaland Central), Dangamvura (Manicaland), Nkulumane High (Bulawayo), Mosi-oa-Tunya (Matabeleland North), J.Z. Moyo School (Matabeleland South), Serima High (Masvingo).
Girls: Kwekwe High (Midlands), Harare Girls High (Harare), Regina Mundi (Midlands), Mufakose 2 High (Harare), Goromonzi High (Mashonaland East), Cornway College (Mashonaland West), Chipadze High (Mashonaland Central), Hillcrest College (Manicaland), Gifford High (Bulawayo), St James (Matabeleland North), Minda High (Matabeleland South), Serima High (Masvingo).
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