Thanks to the loosening of Covid-19 restrictions, the Mel Young Easter Classic Basketball tournament is going ahead this year.
This marks the 31st time the tournament is being held annually, and the amount of teams has been slightly reduced due to Covid-19 restrictions on the number of people in a building.
'We're down from 120 teams to just over 100 this year,” says Tauranga City Basketball Association general manager Mark Rogers.
The tournament starts Good Friday, April 15, and will bring teams together to compete in 18 different grades.
'Thanks to the changes on the number of people allowed in a building, we're able to go ahead this year. 'We will still have people monitoring the doors to make sure we're well below the limit,” says Mark.
'We're using four different buildings this year, and each one is capped to 200 people.”
This means, in some cases, spectator numbers will have to be reduced in order to adhere to restrictions.
'We're so excited to be able to run the tournament this year. Providing the development opportunity to the kids and referees is great.”
On March 23, the Government announced Covid-19 gathering limits indoors will be increased from 100 to 200. This has enabled tournaments such as the Mel Young Easter Basketball Classic to go ahead, as long as they adhere to the new limit.
'It was only a couple of weeks ago the Government made this change and we knew how we would approach the tournament this year. It's refreshing to have a bit of normalcy back,” says Mark.
The young basketball competitors will face off for a chance to get their hands on the Mel Young Easter Classic trophy from Good Friday, April 15 to Easter Monday, April 18.