Hackney Community College Basketball Academy

The Hackney Community College's Basketball Academy is a basketball programme, located in the London Borough of Hackney in the UK designed to engage young people vulnerable to exclusion from education to gain qualifications through engagement with a sport in which they demonstrated talent and potential.

History

The programme was launched in September 2001 following the opening of the College's SPACe Sports Centre in Shoreditch in February that year. Construction of SPACe was funded by Sport England as a Centre of Excellence in Basketball and Cricket. Following the success of the Football Academy set up by Malcolm Williams in 1996, the College's Sport, Leisure and Tourism team designed the basketball programme. A Cricket Academy Programme was launched along similar lines by the same HCC Team in 2002 and this too continues to flourish and grow.

An Athletics Academy was established in 2007. The Basketball Academy has grown and experienced unprecedented success on court and in developing players aged between 16 and 20 (men and women) from all over London, as well as enhancing their life chances through qualifications gained whilst studying at Hackney College.

Operating in an area recognised historically as a hot-bed of basketball development and talent thanks to the work carried out by Joe White at Homerton House School and Hackney White Heat along with the success of East London Royals Basketball Club and Haringey Angels Women, HCCA coaches Tony Garbelotto (co-founder with Joe White of the London Towers Junior Programme in the 1990s) and Solomon Ayinla have helped develop over 180 players since 2001. Players such as Darius Defoe, Perry Lawson, Jeff Danchie and Jean Wakanena have graduated to play professionally for Newcastle Eagles and Plymouth Raiders in the British Basketball League. Eddie Morrison (MK Lions) and Darrell Bethune (Everton Tigers)are the latest HCCA graduates to play in the BBL (2008/09 season) Many others have represented England and Great Britain at Junior level and have graduated to US High School/College Programmes and British University programmes.

Programme overview

Academy players train for 2 hours every week-day and play matches on Wednesday afternoons and Friday evenings in a variety of competitions. From an initial fixture list of 25 matches in 2001/02, all Academy teams now play a combined total close to 100 matches per season. In 2007/08, Academy teams played 104 competitive matches in 17 different competitions, winning 13 titles and finishing runners-up in 4. Academy Teams had an 94/10 winning record in 07/08. The programme is fully inclusive. Students who want to learn/improve their basketball skills train alongside the "elite" players. These players form the HCCA B Team and have won the South East Student Sports Association (SESSA) Cups and Premier League for 4 of the last 6 years.

Achievements

On-court success has been constant over the last seven years and unrivalled by any other College Academy Programme in the UK (of which there are now many). HCCA U19 Men are unbeaten in any National competition since 2002 and have won the British Colleges Sport (BCS) National Championship for the last five years and BCS and English Schools (ESBBA) National Academies Cup for the last four years. HCCA Under 19 Women have also won all their equivalent BCS and ESBBA Cups and Championships over the last four years and currently hold two out of the three National Titles available. The HCCA Women also won the World Corporate Games title in Leeds (August 2008). The Senior Men (all under 20) have won the London Metropolitan Basketball League Premier Division Championship for three out of the last five years finishing second in 07/08 and winning the LMBL Men's Cup for the first time. Four HCCA players were selected to represent Great Britain U 20 Men in the European Youth Championships in Romania (August 2008). Not only was this more than from any other single Academy programme, these players were also the only ones to be selected from a British development programme. These players were Darrell Bethune, Ali Fullah, Michael Ochareobia and Orlan Jackman (HCCA 2005/06)

The aggregate total of matches played by HCCA teams between September 2001 and July 2008 is 490 of which 438 were won, a win percentage of 89.4%. A combined total of 79 competitions and tournaments have been entered by HCCA teams over the last 7 full seasons. 60 of these have been won and HCCA have been runner's up in a further 11, an overall success rate of 76%.

HCCA Coach Tony Garbelotto is now Head Coach of Everton Tigers and Lead Assistant Head Coach of the Great Britain national basketball team(men). He left HCCA to take up the Everton Tigers post in April 2008. HCCA Coach Solomon Ayinla is a former pro player (Europe and the UK), Assistant Coach with the Nigerian National team and Head Coach of the London Metropolitan University Basketball Programme (runners-up in the BUCS Championship in 2006 and 2007). Chris Morris has been Programme Administrator for HCCA since it was established in 2001.

The name "SPACe", home of the HCC Basketball Academy, derives from Sport and Performing Arts Centre. See Hackney Space Centre. Joe White died in December 2002 (aged 39). Malcolm Williams died in May 2006 (aged 68). In October 2006 SPACe sports hall was named in honour of Malcolm Williams, recognition of the work he carried out at Hackney Community College. A plaque commemorating the dedication was unveiled by Lord Sebastian Coe who had been a close friend of Malcolm for many years.

List of titles

enior Men

* London Metropolitan Basketball Premier League Champions 2004,2005,2007
**Runner's Up 2008 (Rocco's Raiders), 2006 (Camden Knights)
*LMBL Division 1 North Winners 2003 (promoted to Premier Division)
*LMBL Cup Winners 2008 (White Heat)
**Runner's Up 2007 (MacPro), 2005 (White Heat)
*SESSA Men's Cup Winners 2002, 2003 (HCCA B), 2004 (Middlesex University), 2005 (Chichester University), 2006 (Kingston University)
**Runner's Up 2007, 2008 (LSBU in both years)
*SESSA Men's Premier League Champions 2002,2003,2004,2005,2006 (B team)
**Runner's Up 2008 (University of East London)
*SESSA Men's Tournament Winners 2002 (Anglia Polytechnic University)
*SESSA Men's Div 1 Winners 2004/5, (B Team promoted to Premier League)

Under 19 Men's Titles

* British Colleges Sport (BCS) National Champions 2004 (East Durham Academy), 2005 (South Notts College), 2006 (Matthew Boulton College), 2007 (Matthew Boulton College), 2008 (Richmond-upon-Thames College Academy)
* BCS National Cup Winners 2005 (Middlesbrough College), 2006 (East Durham Academy), 2007 (Filton College Academy)
* BCS "Elite" Cup 2008 (Moulton College Academy)1st year of comp.
* BCS National Academy League - South East Divisional Champions 2007
* BCS South East Regional Runner's Up 2002 (Richmond-upon Thames College Academy)
* BCS Eastern England Regional Champions - 2003 (Moulton College Academy), 2004 (Cambridge Regional College), 2005 (South East Essex 6th Form College SEEVIC), 2006 (Suffolk Regional College) 2007 (Havering 6th Form College)
* English Schools Basketball Assoc. (ESBBA) National Academy Cup Winners 2005 (Cardinal Newman College Academy, 2006 (Loreto 6th Form College), 2007 (Barking Abbey School Academy), 2008 (Barking Abbey School Academy)

enior Women's Titles

* World Corporate Games Champions - 2008 (Leeds Metropolitan University)
* Shoreditch Corporate Games Champions - 2008 (BNP ParisBas)
* SESSA Women's Premier League Champions - 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
* SESSA Women's Cup Winners -2004, 2005 (Hertfordshire University), 2006 (Kingston University), 2007 (LSBU), 2008 (Kingston University)

Under 19 Women's National Titles

*BCS National Champions - 2006 (Bilborough College, Notts), 2007 (Peter Symonds College, Winchester), 2008 (Holy Cross 6th Form College, Bury)
*BCS National Cup Winners - 2007 (Moulton College Academy), 2008 (Newcastle College Academy)
**Runner's Up 2006 (Bilborough College)
*BCS Eastern England Regional Champions - 2004 (Moulton College), 2005 (SEEVIC), 2006 (SEEVIC), 2007 (SEEVIC)
*ESBBA National Academy Cup Winners - 2006 (Moulton College)
**Runner's Up - 2007 (Barking Abbey School Academy), 2008 (Barking Abbey School Academy)

External links

* [http://www.london-united.co.uk/#/academy/4523610368 Hackney Community College Basketball Academy]

http://www.tcch.ac.uk/News.aspx?CTRL=2

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/content/hackney/gazette/sport

http://www.northantsbasketballclub.net/#/moultoncollegeteams/4529534317

http://www.abbeybasketball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=74&Itemid=2

http://www.abbeybasketball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=75&Itemid=2

http://www.cardinalnewman.ac.uk/previous-news.php

http://www.lmbl.net