St Bernadette’s clinch title in basketball thriller

During the regular season – September to April, 33 Falkirk Primary schools play out monthly in three Conferences at three High Schools, throughout the Falkirk District.

The regular season conference winners, who fought of 10 other schools in their own conference, were – Larbert Village , who took the Eastern title, with Slamannan PS the Central winners and Antonine PS, the Western Conference winners. The top 12 teams of the 33, then met for the Grand Finals.

Conference winners Larbert Village and Slamannan went out in the Finals group stages with only Antonine making the semi-finals and being joined by seven times Jump2it winners Maddiston PS, the strongly fancied St.Bernadettes and Bonnybridge PS.

In the Final Four games, St.Bernadettes defeated Antonine, with Maddiston, seeing off Bonnybridge, with St.Bernadettes going on to take the title with a strong win over Maddiston.

The league, has steadily grown over the years from nine teams to a record 33 of Falkirk’s Primary Schools taking part-making it the biggest primary school competition in Scotland.

The competition’s three regular season Conference situations, sees senior pupils from Grangemouth HS, St.Mungos HS and Denny HS officiate the monthly games. This is a real positive in the basketball and school community, giving the senior pupils a real ownership of the season long competition. The Falkirk PS League program is run in partnership with Falkirk Community Trust Active Schools and Falkirk Fury BC.

Fury Headcoach John Bunyan said: “There is no doubt the FPS Basketball League has not only given a great competition situation for primary school boys and girls in Falkirk, but has been a fantastic platform for players to come into our program – this season was our best ever at U10, U12 and U14 years boys and girls age groups, with literally all of our players having played in the FPS League.

“The work that Active Schools do with the Primary and Secondary Schools is second to none, developing a true pathway for players, officials and I must also highlight the fantastic work done by the coaches and staff who run the primary school teams, they are playing a great part in keeping Falkirk and Fury at the forefront of basketball in Scotland.”

Former Fury star Fraser Malcolm will be one of the main guests at the clubs annual Awards night which will be held next Friday night (June 7) at Grangemouth Town 
Hall.

Fraser, who has just finished a four-year scholarship in the United States at Black Hills State University was named in the All RMAC first team and was Black Hills leading scorer in season 18-19 with 16.8points per game.

A starting five member of Scotland’s Commonwealth Games team in Australia, Fraser will present a selection of the 50 awards being handed out on the night.

This will include season Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player and Players- Players Awards to Fury’s nine National League teams and will also see individual and team awards in respect of the club’s seven National titles won in season 18-19.

Presentations will also include awards for player, team, coach and volunteer of the year, as well as a host of awards for Fury’s younger age group teams.