Hoop Time 2026
The final siren has sounded, Hoop Time for Great Ryrie in 2026 has come to an end, and what a whirlwind week it has been.
This year, we had almost 100 students from Grades 3-6 representing Great Ryrie and participating in the Hoop Time Basketball Competition so here is a summary of how our teams fared with a small piece from each of the team's coaches.
Senior (Grades 5 & 6)
On Friday the 7th of August, we had five teams represent the school at Kilsyth Basketball Stadium with hopes and dreams of having another successful run to progress to the next level.
👑Rookies 1 (Rascals - Coached by Mr. G)
The team was dominant on the day, picking up some very big wins and ended up going undefeated for the day. Highlighted by some awesome shooting from Rosie and Caitlin and backed up with super defense from Felix but the standout performer was Suan Pi, who did a spectacular job with his dazzling dribbling and incredible passing as well as making lots of defensive plays while also getting himself on the scoreboard. Fantastic effort from the whole team. Their sportsmanship and leadership were very noticeable, well done team!
🏀Rookies 2 (Rebels - Coached by Kelsie)
We had a fantastic day on the court, coming away with two wins and a draw in their five games. Phoenix was fantastic across the day, showing plenty of skill and confidence with the ball, while Oliver and Aari also made some great contributions on both ends of the court. The team had some handy help from the last-minute Year 4 fill-ins Kalani and Khloe, who certainly didn’t back down against the Year 5 and 6 opposition and continued to grow in confidence as the day went on.
🥉Future Star Girls 1 (Ravens - Coached by Ms. Jade)
The girls had the seemingly impossible task of starting the day matching up against the only All Star team for the day but despite the loss, they held their own and recovered their confidence at the right time to win the deciding game to book a spot in the Semi-Finals. Unfortunately, they fell short in the Semi-Final to finish 3rd on the day but with a special shout-out to Abbey from Year 4, who filled in on short notice and helped play a pivotal role in all of the games. Some other standout performers were Adele who made some super saves on defense and Halle for showing so much kindness and encouragement to all of her teammates, fantastic effort girls!
🏆Future Star Girls 2 (Rabbits - Coached by Mr. G)
The girls started the day with a shock loss that seemingly woke them up as they bounced back with some very impressive performances to secure a spot in the Semi-Finals. After some handy scoring from Layla on top of some excellent team defensive plays, the girls progressed to the Grand Final. They were matched up against the only undefeated team of the day, the same team that beat them in the first game but this time, the girls were ready for the challenge. Liv led a super impressive defensive first half from the whole team, leading the charge to hold the opposition team to just one goal at the half time break. Liv was instrumental in shutting down their best player and helped the team get out to an early lead that the rest of the girls were able to maintain for the rest of the game, becoming the overall winners on the day. The team will now progress to Regional Finals later this year. Well done to all of the girls and thanks to the parents and students who supported and cheered the girls along the way.
🥇Future Star Boys (Rams - Coached by Jacob)
With only a few remaining faces from last year's State Finals team, the boys were ready to go from the first game, piling on the points quickly and having some big wins in the pool phase to finish on top heading into the finals. They then had another strong showing in the Semi-Finals, followed by a dominant performance in the Grand Final to lock in another visit to Regional Finals. There was lots of fantastic team play throughout the day which allowed all of the boys to have an impact in each win, fingers crossed that history can repeat itself and we can go that little bit further than last year.
Junior (Grades 3 & 4)
On Wednesday the 12th of August, we had 53 super keen students, many of whom had never played basketball before, head out to Nunawading Basketball Stadium to represent Great Ryrie in the Junior level Hoop Time Competition. As this was only our second time in recent years participating in the competition, we did things a little differently and this time, we had some special Year 6 Leaders go along as coaches for each team, let's see how they all went.
🌟Rookies 1 (Year 4 Girls - Reindeers - Coached by Layla and Lacy)
The girls had a fantastic day, winning all of their games and going undefeated. They passed the ball really well and showed great movement both with and without the ball. While everyone shared the load and played a part in scoring heaps of goals, Eleanor in particular showed excellent sportsmanship towards both her teammates as well as the opposition team. Good job girls!
⛹️♀️Rookies 2 (Year 3 Girls - Roosters - Coached by Yvette & Liv)
Being one of the smaller teams on the day, the girls showed they had the biggest hearts, never giving up and they got better as the day went, ending up winning half of their games. They chased hard on defense and passed the ball around really well. Hailey did a fantastic job of stealing the ball from the other team and Dim Boih showed great confidence with her dribbling and passing, hopefully they take that confidence and go again next year.
🏀Rookies 3 (Mixed - Rockets - Coached by Lenny P)
We won all of our games off the back of strong teamwork and putting in lots of effort. They all played fair and listened well to me as well as the umpires. It was a complete team effort, excellent job team.
🏅Rookies 4 (Mixed - Retrievers - Coached by Will)
Our team had a strong day, going undefeated with some really big wins. The team had awesome teamwork all over the court and lots of goals were spread out amongst lots of team members. Hayden was super impressive with his dribbling and shooting and the cheering that we got from our schoolmates helped to make it such a positive experience for the team.
💪Rookies 5 (Mixed - Rabbits - Coached by Lenny M)
We started off strong with a big win and continued on with that for the rest of the day, going undefeated in our pool. The team's hustle and running was a standout as well as their ball movement. Cohen was a standout with his passing and scoring alongside Mia as her positive encouragement all day really made the team feel complete.
🥈Future Star Mixed (Redbacks - Coached by Nate & Mr. G)
They started off the day with some dominant performances in the pool games, helping them finish at the top of their pool off the back of some excellent play from all of the players in the team. It was fantastic to see each of them have their own flash of brilliance in the pool stage. We cruised through the Semi-Final to secure, at a minimum, our best performance ever in the Junior Hoop Time competition, with the tricky task ahead to top it all off with a win in the Grand Final. Unfortunately, the other team was just too strong, leaving the team to settle for 2nd place, a fantastic achievement nonetheless. Some special mentions to Ari for some fantastic shooting, Abbey for making some excellent drives to the ring, gaining confidence as the day went on, Jayden for making some great passes, and Manu for his amazing defense, making reads on the ball and making multiple highlight plays all over the court. As runners-up, the team now waits in the wildcard pool to see if they are lucky enough to receive a call-up to regionals, fingers crossed our name gets called upon for redemption 🤞.
Special thanks to all of the parents and family members who came to watch and support the kids as well as the many teachers and staff members who helped make this day happen. Stay tuned for results of the regional finals coming up later in the year.