Tag: Women’s Elite Academy Basketball League (WEABL)
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How the Academy Leagues Are Changing
The Elite Academy Basketball Leagues tipped off this week with new and returning academy programmes joining the men’s and women’s competitions. The changes follow Basketball England’s review of Category 1 academies for the upcoming three-year cycle. The new academy line-up shows how education providers, professional clubs and Basketball England each bring something different to help…
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20 Things I’ve Learned About the Youth Pathway
Every other week this season, I published an article on youth basketball in Britain. I started out knowing very little. What I did have was time, curiosity, and a willingness to knock on doors, talk to people, and do the research. The deeper I got, the clearer it became that this is one of the…
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Inside the Nottingham Academy Wildcats
The academy players were running a practice drill for their base man-to-man offence on the sprung wooden court of the Wildcats Arena. The rule was simple: every possession had to start with a wing entry pass. One of the players kept trying to get free on the wing. Her defender denied her every time. Possession…
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Victor Ndoukou’s Long Route
Leicester run one of the few pathways in the country that carries players from junior basketball all the way to the professional game. The structure is simple, with each stage feeding the next clearly. Pathway Stage Age Range Competitions Junior Academy 10 to 16 Junior NBL Charnwood College (Men) 16 to 18 EABL, NBL Division…
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Is Basketball’s Academy System Being Left Behind?
Every sport needs a bridge between education and the professional game. When government funding arrived through the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) in 2004 — and later its successor, the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) in 2018 — it gave young athletes across multiple sports a dual path: to train like professionals while completing…
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Talent Is Everywhere, Opportunity Isn’t
British basketball has no problem getting kids onto the court. Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People survey shows basketball is the second most-played team sport among children, helped by outdoor courts — varied in quality but found nationwide — that make it easy to pick up a ball and play. The challenge comes…
