Bohunt School in their HOSANA Brighton Teamwear and 101 Hoodies

The Bohunt School Under 14 Boys Basketball Team have just made their own sporting history.

Last weekend the Under 14 Boys team achieved the distinction of being the second best team in the whole country by being runners-up in the National Finals.

The road to the National Finals started many months ago with Bohunt being drawn against four other schools in the Southern Region competition. Bohunt competed against The European School, from Oxford, Stantonbury Campus from Milton Keynes, Aylesbury Grammar School and Charters School, Berkshire. Bohunt played strongly throughout the Regional games winning all four to become Southern Region Champions (the second year running Bohunt have achieved this distinction at Under 14 level). Following this success Bohunt were drawn against two strong London Schools. Bohunt played Greig City Academy, previous winners of the Nationals, at Bohunt and had to play extremely hard to eventually win by 66 points to 56 points. The final game to qualify for the Final 8 round was against Mossbourne Academy which saw Bohunt travelling up to the East End of London and with an excellent performance Bohunt won 82 – 52.

With Bohunt qualifying as one of the best eight teams in the country the team had only ten days to prepare and make all the necessary arrangements to participate in the Final 8 Tournament, held over the weekend of March 7th, 8th and 9th in Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria. The team travelled the 320 miles to Barrow on the Friday, playing and winning their first game on Friday evening against host team Thorncliffe School, score 56 - 23. On the Saturday Bohunt played Lancaster School from Leicester and again came out winners with a score of 71 - 37. The final game on Saturday was against Bradon Forest School from Wiltshire which Bohunt won 77 - 29. Having won all three games Bohunt emerged as Group Winners and were drawn against Northampton Boys Academy on Sunday morning. The result from this game was 62 – 49, with all Bohunt players performing very well with a real desire to qualify for the final on the Sunday afternoon.

In the final Bohunt played St. Bonaventures from London and despite some excellent play Bohunt did just not finish well enough to secure the win, the final score being 57 – 52. An overall second place in the National Finals is the highest position ever achieved by a team from Bohunt.

The team have been coached throughout the season by Chris Sheldrick a teacher at Bohunt who said “What has impressed me with the team throughout this season is the commitment of all players to make a valuable contribution to the performance of the team. Players have dedicated in excess of six hours a week training, including many sessions before school which start at 7.45 a.m. I have no doubt that this team has the character to provide the necessary work ethic to improve upon the second place this year and come back next year to become National Champions. The team were extremely grateful for the support given to the boys by the many parents who travelled up to Barrow for the weekend making the whole experience such a fantastic occasion.”

The team are pictured below wearing a new kit which was sponsored by Bell Group from Portsmouth and the school is extremely grateful for the support from Mr. Alastair Bell, Managing Director of Bell Group.

The team in the photo are;

Back row left to right:
Mr C Sheldrick, Jake Southam, Phil Moore, Henry Holland, George Beard, Tom Seaman, Jake Jacobs, Mr P Barry

Front row left to right:
George Bowerman, Sam Tremlett, Richard Gatcum, Chris Scarlett, Daniel Barry, Joe Donkin

The Bohunt players are shown in their HOSANA Brighton kits and the coaches in their HOSANA 101 Grey Hoodies.