HAMILTON Basketball Association (HBA) will stage its annual junior tournament this weekend with a record 87 teams descending on Hamilton to get the squad season underway for 2022-23.

The tournament returns to its traditional October timeslot after having to be staged later in the season last year due to the COVID-19 restrictions placed on all sport by the State Government.

The HBA will field teams in the Under-12, Under-14, Under-16 and Under-18 age groups for both boys and girls with games being staged at HILAC, The Hamilton and Alexandra College and Monivae College today and tomorrow.

HBA squad co-ordinator, Pene Baker, is excited for the new season to begin and is looking forward to the Hurricanes players showcasing their talents.

“With teams in all age groups for both boys and girls, the Hamilton Hurricanes have some great teams that will showcase their combined talent across the weekend,” Baker said.

“To stage the tournament takes many people to put their talents together to make everything run smoothly with the coaches, managers, parents, umpires, venues etc, coming together to ensure we give the teams and supporters the best experience possible.

“This is the first tournament of the season for all grades with the Under-16 and Under-18 teams playing through until February 2023 and the Under-12 and Under-14 teams going through to April 2023.

“Some Hurricanes teams will play together in our local junior competitions to gain match practice for the later tournaments.

“Our goal for the ‘A’ squad teams is not only to finish in the top 16 teams in Victoria, but to also go further and finish in the top eight teams, while our overall goal for each team is to finish as high as possible in each age group for both boys and girls.”

Maryborough will send teams for the very first time to contest the Hamilton event, but there will of course be teams come from around the south-west as well.

“Warrnambool is always strong no matter whether they send the division one or division two teams, while Horsham and Portland also pose a threat to the Hurricanes across the age groups,” Baker said.

“We are very excited that Maryborough is attending for the first time, along with all the other traditional rivals as well.”

Baker didn’t want to single out any Hurricane players that spectators should look out for, but enthused over the entire Hurricanes group across all the age groups.

Play gets underway on Saturday morning at all three venues at 8am, while Sunday’s start time is 8.30am with all grand finals being played at HILAC tomorrow afternoon.