GOLD COAST (Australia) - Basketball Fiji with the support of local basketball club Zodiacs, participated in the 2020 Country Junior Basketball Cup held in the cities of Albury and Wodonga in Australia.

Basketball Fiji signed teams up for the U18 Men's and Women's tournament to further develop their youth teams and give international experience to their players.

"The experience overall was an eye-opener for us. We came in with expectations to compete and see where we stand in terms of development with the state teams in Australia," said the Men Head Coach, William Peter. "We learned a great deal from the games we played and the overall level of competition and development that is going on in Australia."

Women's coach, Tiyana Kainamoli echoed the sentiments of Peter and believed the experience is a crucial part of the growth of the players.

"The girls learned a lot, most of them hadn't competed abroad and this was their first tournament of this magnitude. So getting into the culture of competition was new for the team, realizing how tight the schedule was and how time management was important," Kainamoli said.

"The Albury cup experience has shown us the level of competition at the different age groups and where we’re at and how much work is needed," she added.

Interestingly, Kainamoli a current national team member of Fiji's women's basketball team has come full circle with the Country Junior Cup. The 22-year old participated in the same tournament in 2013 and has her first coaching experience with the same team she played for seven years ago.

"I never could've imagined I would be coaching this team, the experience in 2013 was instrumental in my career as a basketball player. I hope this experience will help develop future national team players for our country," she proudly shared.

The Junior Country Cup featured 64 teams with more than 700 players, coaches, and officials participating in the tournament.

Peter, who coached Fiji's Men's squad in the 2018 FIBA U15 Oceania Championship was grateful for the knowledge and believed it has gotten him and the players involved in invaluable lessons that will push Fiji basketball forward.

"We have seen the gap between us and Australia and New Zealand, we know how much harder we need to work to improve ourselves. The experience of playing against these types of competition will hopefully ignite a spark of determination in our players and that they share it with their peers back home," Peter said.

"We hope we continue to compete and join the Country Cup because the only way we can improve is to play against better competition and we are keen on learning from these kinds of tournaments," he added.

Basketball Fiji Chief Operating Officer, Laisiasa Puamau shared that the Federation will push for regular participation of their youth teams at the Australia Junior Country Cup.

"We have seen the positive impact of the tournament on our players, coaches, and officials. This is a great way for us to keep learning and improving all aspects of our program. We need to plan and prepare better for the next one, so we can measure our improvement each year," Puamau stated.

"Basketball Fiji is committed to taking our program to the next level and we are going to take new steps in order for us to keep improving," Puamau ended.

FIBA