New Club Bounces in Ellon

Basketball got a huge boost in Ellon recently with the Ellon Schools Basketball Festival 2011 providing 130 local children with an opportunity to represent their school.

Newburgh Primary School emerged as winners and will represent the Ellon cluster at the Grampian schools Festivals on March 18 at the International School, Aberdeen.

Eleven schools have been receiving weekly coaching as part of a pilot for the Bounce into Basketball programme. The popularity of the programme has resulted in the creation of the Ellon Phantoms Basketball Club with a weekly Under 12 session created at Ellon Academy.

The ‘Bounce’ programme was initiated through a partnership between Basketball Scotland, Basketball Grampian, Active Schools and Senergy, a global energy services company head quartered in Aberdeen.

Marie Dobson, Active Schools Coordinator for the Ellon cluster, commented:

“We really enjoyed participating in this great opportunity. The coaching the schools received from basketball Grampian was excellent, which lead to a great festival. The children were really excited and now they have a great opportunity to participate in a new club with the Ellon Phantoms.”

Grant Wilson, Grampian Basketball Coordinator, said “It was a great festival to be part of. The players were up and for it and noise during the final was deafening. “

The initial financial support of Senergy was matched by Sport Scotland’s Sport Match scheme and has now attracted significant support from the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities scheme.

Henry Allen, Director of Business Sustainability at Senergy commented:

“Senergy is delighted that our initial support of the ‘Bounce’ programme has helped to secure additional government funding to expand the programme.  It is fantastic to see how many young people are benefiting from such a worthwhile and exciting project.”

“Bounce is working so well in Ellon that we simply had to expand the programme and we’re delighted to be able to roll out nation-wide thanks to the combined support of Senergy and CashBack For Communities” said Kevin Pringle, CEO of Basketball Scotland.