Rishad Attends An Indigenous Basketball Competition

From the 17th to the 23rd of December, 2019, I had the privilege of competing in the Australian Indigenous Basketball under 18’s National Tournament in Cairns, Queensland.  I was chosen to represent the Torres Strait Islands.  Even though I was the youngest player in my team and possibly the youngest player in the competition, I wasn’t overawed to be competing against older guys.  There were many teams from all over Australia including Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin and the Torres Straits.  We had a strong start to the tournament, winning our first two games.  As the competition unfolded the games became tougher, so it was difficult to progress to the finals.  Our team won 3 out of 6 matches, which was a pleasing result.  Overall the tournament was a wonderful experience for me and all the other competitors.  Of course, it was fantastic to play basketball, but even more exciting was the opportunity to connect with many people from different Indigenous cultures around Australia.

Rishad Cook-Sabatino (10HS)