Six Inverness teenagers from Highland Bears called up to Scotland basketball squad
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HIGHLAND Bears Basketball Club are making a big impact on the national scene.
The club are becoming known for producing a conveyor belt of young talent that is good enough to represent their country on the international stage in recent years.
This weekend, six players from the club have been called up to the Scotland under-14 girls squad to compete at the Tri-Nations Tournament in Dundee.
Grace Alexander, Madison Croall, Sarah Lambert, Baileigh Matte, Lexi Macleod and Emily Seago will take to the court to compete with Scotland Blue and Scotland White against teams from England and Wales.
They are the latest crop of youngsters from the club considered to be good enough to represent Scotland.
Highland Bears coach Jeni Alexander has been appointed head coach of Scotland White who will compete at the tournament.
She says that while English teams will be favourites to win the tournament on Saturday, she says Scotland are closing the gap, thanks to the talent coming through, including from the north.
“We want them to perform as well as they can at the tournament,” she said.
“I think the Scottish teams are good enough to beat the English teams and we are looking to see how big the gap actually is.
“England have played in more tournaments than we have and have put in more investment to their programs.
“But it will be interesting to see how much Scotland have closed the gap.”
Highland Bears, as well as Inverness Lions, have produced players to represent Scotland in recent years.
In April, Bears’ players Charlotte Alexander and Molly Alexander, along with Holly Welch from the Lions, represented Scotland Under-16's at the Home Nations Tournament in Ireland.
Alexander partly hails the success of the Highland Bears youth program in the club’s resilience during the Covid pandemic.
As all sport did, basketball was forced to shut down during the lockdowns.
But when physical activity was gradually reintroduced, Highland Bears worked hard to ensure its players could play basketball outside, before they were able to play indoors again.
“We have done a really good job of keeping basketball going through the Covid period after everything was shut down,” she said.
“But we were able to coach outside when we were allowed to.
“We used Bellfield Park to hold sessions and bought basketball nets and kept going.
“Keeping the basketball program going through Covid is seeing us reaping the benefits now.“
Highland Bears have a development program where kids have a pathway from playing from primary school age all the way through to senior level.
Talented players are also identified by Basketball Scotland to become part of their regional academy program.
The program, which focuses on players between under-14 and under-18 level aims to help players, coaches and officials improving to develop key knowledge and skills that will help them progress within the game.
Players focus on physical, technical, tactical, psychological and social elements of the game, following a phased curriculum.
Players who impress for the Regional Academy and then selected for the National Academy program.
A small number of players selected mainly from the regional academy come together as a team and prepare to compete in competitions against teams from other nations.
Alexander explained: “Any child can go and try out for the regional academy.
“The regional academy then picks 40 players for each age group and develop them during 14 sessions at the regional performance centre in Dundee and from that the national academy gets picked.
“This year we picked 20 players for the national academy and the process ends with the tri-nations tournament which takes place in Dundee this weekend.”
“At the Highland Bears, we have a full pathway that starts at under-eight level and then go on to under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16, under-18 and then the senior men and women’s teams.
“There is a full pathway for boys and girls.”
Kids have also been encouraged to take part in the Junior NBA programme in Scotland.
Schools in Inverness have taken part in the programme in the past and Alexander says it proved to be of benefit not just to the Highland Bears, but to basketball in Inverness too.
Basketball athletes have also been supported by the Highland Athlete Travel Award Scheme.
Funded by sportscotland and High Life Highland and administered by High Life Highland, the scheme supports individuals that are taking part in sports recognised by sportscotland.
They provide financial support for Highland athletes to access high performance expertise in sport and compete at national and international level.
Highland Bears teenagers have achieved success at national level this season.
The club have been crowned Scottish Under-16 Women Division Two champions winning all six of their matches.
There has also been success for Inverness Lions with their women’s team winning the under-18 Scottish Division Three title and their boys team winning the Scottish Division Two under-16 play-off finals.
Alexander says both clubs are doing a lot to promote basketball in the city.
She hopes the achievements of the current crop of girls about to represent Scotland will prove an inspiration for more youngsters to take to the court and become stars of the future.
“Both the Highland Bears and Inverness Lions are doing a lot for basketball in Inverness,” she said.
“It was great that our Highland Bears under 16 team won the Division Two title.
A lot of these girls have been involved in the program since junior NBA. They are committed, have the support of their families and have good coaches.
“They are proving an inspiration to other girls who want to follow what they have done.
They are so competitive, they train with intensity and they show resilience.
“They are showing the other girls that they are capable of doing that too.
“We have more girls in the national academy than ever before.
“Success breeds success and when they compete against each other they are training hard and pushing each other.
“Our kids are doing great.”
