Jan
25
2021
2020 Asia Pacific Tournament
So excited to announce that last Saturday at the Asia-Pacific Tournament in Auburn our Charity Bounce Stand Tall All-Stars finished 3-1 and won 3rd place in the tournament! It was amazing to watch. The young men demonstrated everything they have been taught when it came to overcoming obstacles on Saturday. We found out a couple days before the tournament that two of our key players could not play due to age restrictions, and two other key players were already in another tournament. This left us to start the tournament with 6 players and luckily ended up with 7 by the end of the second game with one player a number of years younger than the age bracket.
The first game we played well but lost at the end due to fatigue and the team trying to find their rhythm. This was hard for the players, but they were able to talk through what they believed was wrong and take direction from the coaches.
The second game came down to a thrilling overtime scenario and first shot wins. The team were frustrated during this game, but found a way to get on the same page even though they had two players foul out before overtime. The last second shot came down to one of our younger player, Noah (12 years old!!) making the 3 pointer! This was the win we needed to get us through the rest of the tournament and was a great moment to rise to the challenge.
The young men went on to win the next two games by double digits to include beating the top team in the Under 18 bracket. In the last game Mataius, who is also 12 years old (Number 5, the shortest person in the gym!), lead the way and scored 14 pts against guys that were over 6 ft. For context, in the week prior, Mataius played with Charity Bounce in a friendly game with Moriah College where we lost by one point after Mataius had the ball stolen from him at the end of the game in the last seconds. He was devastated that week but still came back for this tournament and played well, improving on his performance and rallying the team together for the win.
The players learnt that working together as a team, having determination, and believing in themselves can carry them through anything. They learned to be resilient after the loss and to turn this experience into a positive. The fathers of the young men thanked Charity Bounce for affording their child the opportunity to play, believing in them, and building their confidence to keep shooting and play hard. The youth spoke about owning their mistakes and understanding the importance of “practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect!
