United youth team in blue kit posing playfully in the sports hall (standard illustrative photo, not related to this article)

Successful 7th edition of the Talent Tournament

Published

On Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September, the seventh edition of the United Basketball Talent Tournament (formerly the FireStarter tournament) took place at Sportcentrum de Kooi in Bemmel. In total, 33 teams took part across 5 categories.

Day 1 | U14 & U16

On the Saturday, the U14 and U16 teams competed for first place. The champions were MBCA U14 and MBCA U16.

Day 2 | MU18 & MU22

Traditionally, day 2 belongs to the Men’s U18 and the Dutch Talent League (U22). The day got off to a great start with many exciting matches at a good level — perfect preparation for the new season starting the following week. Some late withdrawals meant the schedule had to be changed at the last minute to keep the tournament interesting for everyone, which unfortunately did add some extra time between matches. This didn’t dampen the teams’ enthusiasm, and a good, interesting tournament was played — the coaches took their homework with them to be ready for the week ahead.

In the men’s U18, Lokomotief Rijswijk took the win, and in the men’s U22 pool BS Leiden ultimately proved the strongest.

New | VU21

For the first time in its history, the tournament welcomed a women’s pool, this year a combined pool of VU21 and the Women’s Promotiedivisie. 5 teams from around the country began their pool matches full of enthusiasm. During the pool phase it became clear Landslake Lions had the best credentials, but injuries forced them to withdraw from the cross-finals. That’s why we chose to award two joint first places: to the undefeated pool-phase winner, and to BS Leiden VU21’s fine win, who proved too strong for Batouwe D2 in the final.

Good preparation for the United Academy season

There’s work to do for the United Academy’s coaches and players: this test against direct competitors is a valuable lesson for the players in our youth programme. It promises to be a great season.

Partnership with Basketball Nederland

We’d like to thank our volunteers, first-aiders, parents, participants and the staff of De Kooi. In particular, we thank the referees and assessors from Basketball Nederland. We’ve had a great partnership with Basketball Nederland for years, in which we host the training and provide good matches for the up-and-coming officials, while they take care of staffing the games. It’s a wonderful addition to our tournament and is greatly appreciated by the participants.

See you next year

As an organisation we’re already looking at dates for next year; the tournament will most likely take place again on the second weekend of September. Will you be there too?

Final standings

Men’s U18

  1. Lokomotief
  2. Heroes Basketball Academie
  3. BV Noordkop
  4. Landslake Lions
  5. Amstel State
  6. United Academy
  7. High Five Tilburg
  8. Rotterdam Basketball

Men’s U22

  1. BS Leiden
  2. Hot Pepper Heat
  3. Triple Threat
  4. UBALL
  5. Almere Pioneers

VU21

  1. Landslake Lions (undefeated in the pool phase)
  2. BS Leiden (cross-final winner)
  3. Batouwe Basketball
  4. BV Katwijk
  5. United Academy