Te Wharekura o Rūātoki’s senior girls basketball team have every reason to smile.
The team have been together for three years and after some strong showings the past couple of years, have really made 2024 their own.

Continually, they punch well above their weight and show not only plenty of skill, but determination, hungrer competitiveness to win – and make their school proud.

A series of impressive performances saw them claim gold in the Eastern Bay of Plenty Secondary School senior girls’ division, and then better that effort by taking out the Western Bay competition.

Manager Reno Moosman-Melbourne is incredibly proud of the girls and their efforts.

“It’s excellent and pretty cool for our team to do what they have done.”

She said they were a tight-knit group, who had been supportive of each other on and off the court since they started three years ago.

“We have year 9s right through to year 13s and the senior girls have been absolutely amazing, welcoming the junior girls and making them feel part of the team. I think it’s why we’ve done so well. Everyone gets on super well and we all support each other.”

They played in the senior A grade in both divisions and despite being the smallest on the court, they didn’t hold back.

“It’s cool knocking over the bigger schools. We played Waihi in the Western Bay finals and it was a super-hard game, but we’re so happy to beat them.”

Moosman-Melbourne said they were a great bunch of girls.
“The girls put their success down to their coach, Manuka Aapiata, being nice and calm all the time and they work as a team and have beautiful team spirit. They look after each other and you can see that’s why they did well.”

The first year they played, the team won bronze in Whakatāne. Last year, they missed the entering date in the EBOP competition so were forced to play in the Tauranga competition, in which they finished second. This year they decided to test themselves and play in both competitions.

Moosman-Melbourne said what made their efforts more impressive was the girls also played other sports.

“Every week, we had one or two away due to different things. Some of the girls played netball, some rugby, but it meant whoever was there, just stood up and did incredibly well.”

A good attitude goes a long way and so does a love for their sport, and she said they had all of that.

All up, there were 11 girls in the team throughout the season.

“They play more than one code, and we had a few clashes and they still managed to pull it off. It’s super awesome.”