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Sport UNE to host Midnight Basketball
![3D"basketball.jpg"](3D"http://blog.une.edu.au/news/files/2008/04/basketball.jpg")
The University of New England is participating in an international, = community-based movement that is helping teenagers stay away from = antisocial behaviour.
=0A=An Armidale tournament of Midnight Basketball will begin at Sport UNE = on Saturday 3 May.
=0A=Midnight Basketball was established in the United States in 1986 to = provide an alternative activity for teenagers at that time of night when = they are most likely to be engaged in (or victims of) antisocial = behaviour. It now operates in about 100 locations in the United States = and the UK and, after coming to Australia in 2006, staged 15 tournaments = around the country last year.
=0A=The program, held on successive Saturday nights over a nine-week = period, combines basketball games with life-skills workshops on topics = such as drug and alcohol awareness, sex education, nutrition and health, = anger management, and financial literacy. The organisation’s = slogan, “No Workshop, No Jump Shot”, emphasises the rule = that participation in a workshop on each evening is a prerequisite for = playing in that evening’s basketball games.
=0A=Participants are boys and girls aged between 12 and 18. They will be = picked up by bus at 7 pm and travel to Sport UNE, where dinner will be = served at 7.30. The program of workshops and basketball games then = continues till midnight, when the teenagers will return home by bus.
=0A=Sport UNE’s Angela Collongues, the manager of the Armidale = tournament, said that she and her colleagues were in the process of = visiting all Armidale high schools to recruit participants. = “Registration for the players is free,” she said, “and = we’re hoping to involve about 60 teenagers. We’ll also need = about 25 volunteers a night to help us run the program: people to travel = with the participants on the buses, to help with the catering, and team = leaders for the games and workshops. The volunteers can be students, = parents, or other members of the community, and it’s vital for the = success of the program that we find enough of them. Anyone interested in = volunteering can contact the local office of the NSW Department of = Premier and Cabinet on (02) 6771 5781.”
=0A=“As the teams will not be divided up by schools, this will be a = great opportunity for students from different schools to = interact,” Ms Collongues added. “And, as each team will = include players of different ages, the older kids will have a chance to = act as mentors to the younger ones.”
=0A=It was through the Premier’s Department and the local group = EACH (Eastern Action Community Health) that an application was made to = Midnight Basketball Australia which resulted in the planning of the = Armidale tournament, and the appointment of Ms Collongues as its = manager. The Commonwealth Bank is a major sponsor of Midnight Basketball = Australia.
=0A=There will be a second Armidale tournament later in the year.
=0A=THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows, in the foreground, Sport = UNE’s Angela Collongues, the manager of the Armidale Midnight = Basketball tournament. It expands to include (from left) John Kauter = (Marketing and Public Affairs, UNE), Maureen Chapman (NSW Department of = Premier and Cabinet), Rob Lasker (Youth and Family Services NSW), and = Tracy Wright (Operations Manager, Sport UNE).
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