West Midlands Female 3v3 IM Basketball Festival

The Gordon Banks Sports Centre at Newcastle under Lyme College (NULC) played host to the first West Midlands 3v3 IM Basketball festival on the Wednesday 9^th October.

IM Basketball is one of England Basketball’s initiatives aimed at increasing participation by helping anyone get involved in basketball regardless of age, gender, size or ability. Approximately 35 – 40 female students took part in the festival which was aimed at providing some fun competition as an exit route for female college students involved in intra college activities.

The festival was also aimed at providing a platform for student leaders to gain experience in running events. A group of four student volunteers from NULC oversaw the proceedings on the day, meeting and greeting, organising fixtures and results and officiating, all with the moral support of Dave Sutton, NULC’s College Sports Maker and Trevor Humphries, the Academy of Sport Manager. Two of NULC’s student volunteers involved were the West Midlands Regional Youth Council members Beth Wragg and Abbie Jackson.

Abbie, who is studying at the college as the Academy of Sport Apprentice, said ‘It was so much fun running this festival, and to see a good number of girls wanting to take part’

Birmingham Metropolitan, Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form, NULC and the City of Stoke on Trent Sixth Form Colleges all took part in the festival, each brining two teams. The flexible fun approach to day also meant those few extra students who wanted to participate were rotated in to ensure all had the opportunity to take part. Each team played each other once during the afternoon with Birmingham Met A topping the festival table.

Trevor Humphries said, ‘It was a fantastic opportunity for us to host this festival for the region and to provide our students with an opportunity to develop their event management skills within an inter college competition environment.’