AUCKLAND - The New Zealand Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns have won the admiration of their compatriots for the past two decades with battling and at times riveting performances on the international stage.

One sign that those efforts are capturing the imagination is the big increase in the numbers of youth playing basketball in the New Zealand secondary schools.

Emerging Tall Black Dan Fotu won Secondary Schools National Championships with Rangitoto in 2015 and 2016 and was second in 2017.

According to recently released New Zealand Secondary School Sports Council (NZSSSC) figures, basketball is now the third largest sport in New Zealand secondary schools, having overtaken football (soccer) since 2016.

Basketball New Zealand believe that, should the trend continue, the game will become the number secondary schools sport in the country by 2020.

Of the top 10 participation sports, basketball has increased 11 percent in one year. Over the last five years, basketball has continued its trend of increasing by 27 percent. The next fastest-growing sport is volleyball, at 13 percent growth over five years and a total of 17,693 participants.

Other more traditional sports have been dropping over that five-year trend with netball at -2 percent, rugby union -6 percent and cricket -8 percent.

"This is a good problem to have and not a revelation - basketball has been growing rapidly for years now," said Basketball New Zealand Chief Executive Iain Potter. "We also know that we can do a lot more. For example, we are working with our associations to try and increase girls' participation. We want to bump that figure up. In 2017, we had 7,985 secondary school girls playing and 17,664 boys. There's a great opportunity for us to balance that out with more female participation.

"Overall the combined figure will likely jump again because we've also added more tournaments that focus more on participation than national titles. We've added two new tournaments this year for schools wanting a quality tournament experience, but who are not attempting to qualify for nationals."

"At the high performance level, we are woefully under-resourced, so we need more backing there to support the player pathway, so these kids can reach their potential once they complete secondary school. But overall, we continue to celebrate the growth of the game in New Zealand"Potter

There is no doubt that the national teams have a major impact on interest levels. After Shea Ili was named to the All-Star Five at the FIBA Asia Cup 2017, he made that very point. He was just nine years old when the Tall Blacks went on a surprising run to the Semi-Finals. That side was later recognized as New Zealand's Team of the Year.

"I actually remember Pero (Cameron) playing back in the day when he was in the All-Star Five in 2002 (FIBA Basketball World Cup), watching that at home," Ili said to FIBA.basketball. "It was good to see how far they had gone... they were our idols."

Sixteen years later the sport has soared in popularity, yet challenges remain. One goal is to have gyms for youngsters to play in.

Iain Potter

"Yes, it's been the same story for a number of years now," Potter remarked on the Basketball New Zealand website. "We need more facilities and support in the regions. Many of our associations are working hard to provide basketball. That said, we've had the likes of Aon and Schick partnering with us to grow the youth game – Aon support our national age-group teams and tournaments. Schick have backed the senior secondary schools tournaments and the national championships."

There is also another key support arm.

"Sport New Zealand is also an important funder for us," Potter stressed. "They're focusing a good deal of funding on basketball at the community level because they see it as a big sport for their strategic goals."

Potter offered even more comment on the potential of the sport in the country but also recognized that hurdles must be cleared.

"We have some projects that could really be grown with more support," he said, "like our 3x3 Quest Tour, which is about three-a-side street basketball events that are offered around the country in the summer.

"At the high performance level, we are woefully under-resourced, so we need more backing there to support the player pathway, so these kids can reach their potential once they complete secondary school. But overall, we continue to celebrate the growth of the game in New Zealand."

FIBA