Eagles deliver to the Scottish Cabinet

On their recent visit toElginthe Scottish Cabinet took the opportunity to hoop it up with Elgin Eagles Basketball Club.  The club has significantly increased opportunities for participating and competing in basketball in Moray and as such was asked to provide a demonstration of one of their ‘Raising the Hoops’ Primary Schools basketball sessions.

Club Coaches Jamie Alexander, Iain Allardes Blaine Watson, and Andrew Macdonald covered stations in shooting, passing, dribbling and wheelchair basketball to pupils from Bishopmill primary school last years Elgin ASG Primary school competition and Grampian Regional Primary Finals runners up.  However it wasn’t long before the pupils turned coaches themselves and were teaching local MSP Richard Lochead the shooting principles of B.E.E.F.

Whilst showing off her shooting capabilities Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon talked about the Twilight Basketball sessions that take place in her constituency.  She was also impressed with the outdoor basketball set-up and the club mentioned that they often run similar programs through their street-basketball sessions using portable outdoor hoops.  The club also discussed how they would like to link in further with initiatives like Twilight Basketball.

Club Chairman Graham Stewart discussed the importance of competitive opportunities in sport with the First Minister Alex Salmond.   Elgin Eagles currently work in partnership with basketballscotland, Active Schools and Moray Council Sports Development to deliver their ‘Raising the hoops’ program of coaching and competition to over 24 of the 45 schools in Moray. 

The club also competes in basketballscotland’s Highland Regional Development Leagues (RDL) and is currently organising its own inter-club competitions for their youth set-up with teams from across Moray.

More information about these competitions can be found on the clubs website http://sites.google.com/site/elgineaglesbasketballclub/

Elgin Eagles who received an Awards for All grant in 2010 also expressed their gratitude for this grant without which they would have been unable to have developed as many programs in the past year.

Picture courtesy of the Northern Scot’