COMMUNITY
Giants in Schools
In partnership with the Basketball Development Nelson Trust, NBS Nelson Giants players and coaches have been coaching in primary schools across the Top of the South for over 30 years.
We are committed to growing basketball and building a passion for the game in our young people. We also understand how important it is for our youth to be active participants in sports and leisure, and the positive health benefits that flow from that.
With 10 of our 16 players having been schooled in the Nelson Tasman region, we are reaping the benefits of the role modelling and coaching provided by the Giants in the past.
You can't be what you can't see - having our players interact so closely with the region’s young people allows those keen basketball players to dream big and see that they too can become Giants.
Tom Ingham coaching kids at Nayland Primary
Hayden Jones (17) and James Matthews (16) are members of the Mainland Eagles programme and were last year selected in the New Zealand U17 representative team and will play for the NBS Nelson Giants in 2024.
Player Development
The NBS Nelson Giants work with Basketball Development Nelson Trust, Nelson Basketball Association and the Mainland Eagles programme to deliver player development for our aspiring High School age players.
Head Coach Mike Fitchett benefitted as a player from high level coaching from a young age under former Nelson Giants coach Nenad Vucinic. As such, he is passionate about providing this support to the current crop of up and coming players. He brings his experience coaching and leading the New Zealand Breakers Academy in Auckland to this programme.
A number of players have benefitted from these programmes in the past, either graduating to the Giants squad, or going on to play elite basketball elsewhere, such as in the NCAA University system in the US.
Our Community Partners
Our community programmes are made possible with the support of the following community partners:
Basketball Development Nelson Trust
The Basketball Development Nelson Trust (BDNT) is a charitable trust which aims to grow and develop basketball in Te Tauihu. The Giants work with the BDNT to deliver community basketball programmes which align with the BDNT's purpose.
The Basketball Development Nelson Trust has received funding from the following organisations over the past 12 months and we wish to thank them for their support of basketball development in our region:
Mainland Eagles
As outlined above, the Giants and the BDNT have recently partnered with the Mainland Eagles programme to provide a coaching resource for our top school players in Nelson-Tasman. The Eagles are based in Christchurch and have a strong record of developing young players and helping them pursue their dreams to play University basketball in the USA.
Nelson Basketball Association
The Nelson Basketball Association (NBA) administers basketball in the Nelson Tasman region, delivering player, coach and referee development, as well as running leagues and the representative programmes. All of our homegrown Giants have come through the NBA system.
Community Sponsors
A number of our Nelson Giants sponsors specifically support our community programmes.
These sponsorships are vital to helping us grow and develop basketball in Nelson. Our sponsors see the long term benefit of our community programmes: as well as providing young people with great experiences, investment in our youth will pay dividends for the club over time as we see these kids come through and play for the Giants.
Growing and promoting local talent has huge benefits for our team and region. Not only does it make us better on court, those players who have come up through the ranks here are our future coaches, referees and parents who will champion our game for years to come.
Thank you to all of our community partners for their ongoing support of basketball in Te Tauihu.
