Michael Smith of Personal Best: Health, Fitness and Wellbeing, a health and fitness company based in West Lothian, is extending an exclusive offer to all basketball players in Scotland.

The company has gone from strength to strength in recent times and now offers personal training, sports and therapeutic massage, cancer exercise rehabilitation and a GP referral scheme.

Michael has been working with the Scotland Under 18 Women squad this season providing sports massage at training while also travelling with the squad to the European Championships, Division B, in Romania.

Working with the Under 18 Women has helped Michael form close links with basketballscotland and as an official sports massage therapist for basketballscotland, Michael is extending an excellent offer for sports massage treatments.

For all basketballscotland players, Personal Best: Health, Fitness and Wellbeing are offering  fixed rates of £25 for an hour and £20 for a 45 minute treatment.

To find out more about any of the services Personal Best are offering, you can check out their website at www.personalbestuk.com.

To get in touch or book a sports massage at the basketballscotland rates then phone Michael on 07546 356 748 or email at info@personalbestuk.com.

Scotland’s national squads have kicked off perhaps the biggest summer of international basketball in memory.

Six Scotland teams are competing at European Championships in Armenia, Malta, Romania, Israel and Andorra.

These tournaments represent significant steps towards basketballscotland’s performance vision of competing at Division B level, including both under 18 teams competing in Division B and both senior squads playing preparation games again Division B standard opposition.

The preparation phase has been highlighted by the first ever GB Home Nations Joint Camp between Scotland, Great Britain, England and Wales attended by Scotland’s under 18 Women, under 18 Men and under 16 Men.

The selection of ten Scottish players to Great Britain squads adds to the team successes and adds weight to the second element of basketballscotland’s performance vision, namely Scottish representation at the highest international level possible.

National Squad activity is made possible by the volunteer commitment of coaches and managers. Together, they will contribute approximately 3,500 hours of their time to the national squads this summer. All the training, camps, tournaments and off-court preparation add up to an invaluable contribution to the game of basketball in Scotland.

The national squads are centred on the development of the 135 players selected across the nine squads. In order to represent their country these players and many parents make difficult choices and great contributions of time, energy and finance.

National Squad facts and figures for summer 2010:

• First time Scotland has had two youth teams competing in Division B in the same year
• First time Scotland has had six teams in the European Championships in the same year (involving 19,800 miles of air travel)
• Ten Scots chosen to Great Britain squads, including eight Scottish-born players and two naturalised or second generation Scots.
• 28 trips and hosted events
• 140 training sessions
• 410 hours of training
• 75 players registered with FIBA Europe
• Approximately 3,500 hours of volunteer time!

2010 International Schedule:

Senior Women

International friendly games v Austria, Linlithgow, 18-20 June

European Championships, Division C, Armenia, 25 June – 4 July

Trudie Hopgood – Head Coach

Tony Shand – Assistant Coach

Elif Yilmaz – Manager

Senior Men

International friendly games v Norway, Stirling, 24-25 April

Preparation games v Newcastle Eagles, Danum Eagles Newcastle, Everton Tigers, May-June

International friendly games v England, Worchester, 26-27 June

European Championships, Division C, Malta 3-11^th July

Tom Campbell – Head Coach

Robert Taft – Assistant Coach

Euan Campbell – Assistant Coach

Under 23 Men

International friendly games v Great Britain U20’s, Manchester, 5-6 June

Ben O’Connell - Head Coach

Adrian Flynn - Assistant Coach

Colin Lynch - Manager

Under 18 Women

Preparation camp, Highland, 18-20 June

Joint camp with Great Britain, England, Wales, Bristol, 25-27 June

European Championships, Division B, Timisoara 27 July -9 August

Donna Finnie – Head Coach

Jennifer Gallacher – Assistant Coach

Kara Gillies – Assistant Coach
Lorraine McAuley – Manager

Under 18 Men

Preparation games, Barcelona 10-13 June

Joint camp with Great Britain, England, Wales, Bristol, 18-20 June

International friendly games v Ireland, Wales U20, East Lothian, 25-27 June

European Championships, Division B, Tel Aviv, 20 July – 2 August

Doug Reilly - Head Coach

Alan Lamb – Assistant Coach

Jim Wright – Assistant Coach

Amelia Morgan – Manager

Under 16 Women

Preparation games, Leeds, 2-4 April

Preparation games, Barcelona 17-20 June

Preparation camp, Inverclyde, 9-11 June

European Championships, Division C, Andorra 23 July -1 August

Ian Gordon – Head Coach

Lorna Norman – Assistant Coach

Marianne Hayward – Manager

Under 16 Men

Copenhagen Invitational Tournament, Copenhagen 11-13 June

Joint camp with Great Britain, England, Wales, Bristol, 18-20 June

Preparation games, Manchester 9-10 July

European Championships, Division C, Andorra 24 July – 1 August

Colin Haldane – Head Coach

Russel Kesson – Assistant Coach

Trudie Hopgood – Assistant Coach

Neil Connell – Manager

Under 15 Girls

England U15 Inter-Regional Tournament, Sheffield 12-13 June

Friendly games, Belfast, 25-27 June

Darryl Wood – Head Coach

Roddy Gordon – Assistant Coach

Joanne Holmes – Manager

Under 15 Boys

England U15 Inter-Regional Tournament, Nottingham 5-6 June

Copenhagen Invitational Tournament, 11-13 June

Russel Kesson - Head Coach

Craig Nicol - Assistant Coach

Alan MacDonald - Manager

Scotland’s Senior Women pushed hosts Armenia hard in the semi-finals before falling 86-63 at the European Championships, Division C.

Scotland closed the gap to 13 points mid-way through the fourth quarter before the hosts pulled away down the stretch in front of 1500 spectators. 

The impressive Armenian team head into the final undefeated having won their games in pool play by an average of 28 points.

Scotland shared the ball well, picking up 15 assists on their way to shooting 53% from inside the 3 point line but struggled from outside the arc, shooting 11%. Armenia meanwhile won the rebound battle 45-36 and shot a blistering 40% from the 3 point line.

Siobhan Moore led Scotland with a balanced effort of 11 points (5/10 shooting), 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.

Erin McGarrachan, who will feature for Scotland at the upcoming Under 18 European Championships, Division B, scored 12 points (5/8 shooting), while adding 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals.

Natalie Chaloner led Scotland’s scoring with 13 points (6/13 shooting), plus 2 assists and 2 steals.

Scotland ultimately had little answer for naturalised American Amanda Jackson who led Armenia with 30 points on 11 of 19 shooting.

Scotland now awaits the result of the other semi-final between Malta and Moldova to see who they play in the play-off for third place.