Wellington (New Zealand) - Basketball New Zealand introduced a new program, "Girls Got Game," today (May 10) to promote and attract Kiwi girls to play basketball.

Girls Got Game was launched during the Women's Basketball Championships and was supported by Tall Ferns ambassadors including Kalani Purcell, Jordan Hunter, Nicole Ruske and Penine Davidson. The development program offers a non-competitive environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle and having fun with the game of basketball.

“We know that, as a sport, we have a lot of work to do to see more girls and women playing basketball. The School Sport New Zealand Census certainly makes it clear: in 2018 there were 26,481 secondary school students playing basketball," said Basketball New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Iain Potter.

"Of those, 7983 were girls. We see that as an opportunity and we want to significantly boost that number. We want as many girls playing as boys,” he added.

The Girls Got Game will be organized in various cities across New Zealand including Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago which will be supported by regional basketball associations and WBC teams.

The Canterbury Basketball Association (CBA) are one of the basketball associations keen on implementing this program to increase the female participants of basketball.

"The Girls Got Game initiative is a great way to introduce girls to the sport in a friendly, encouraging and supportive environment. The programme aims to have girls begin to master new skills in a social rather than competitive setting, which then increases enjoyment and retention," (CBA). Chief Executive Paul Duggan.

"The CBA hopes to roll out Girls Got Game across primary and intermediate schools using the Alloyfold Canterbury Wildcats team members to deliver the programme,” he added.

Girls Got Game was modeled after BBNZ's Kiwi Hoops program which had a total of 19,190 participants in 2018.

For more information visit www.nz.basketball/girlsgotgame

FIBA