Kock: “Tournaments like this are a beacon for young players”
The challenges that come with organising and hosting an event as big as the recently concluded St John’s College Basketball Tournament are myriad, but the Johannesburg school, as always, successfully pulled off a sparkling four-day event.
That was achieved despite the hosts having to deal with heavy highveld rains on the opening day, which forced the organisers to scramble to arrange indoor venues.
And yet, despite Mother Nature’s challenge, the tournament was a success, with Northwood School retaining the u19 trophy by beating St John’s College in the final on Sunday.
“Hosting a tournament of this scale – which is 24 u19 teams, 24 u15 teams, and 16 u13 teams for this year – means that when you host an event like this that is held at an outdoor venue, the weather is always a big factor,” St John’s College’s Director of Basketball, Clemen Kock, told SuperSport School Plus in an exclusive interview.
“But with the resources that the school has put behind us, the support from the parents, as well as the understanding and working infrastructure of all the schools, we were able to work through and work around the challenges that the weather posed.”
Kock emphasised the importance of involving u13 boys in the festival. The goal was to infuse a passion for basketball in the youngsters and, thus, grow and preserve the sport in South Africa, he explained.
He also believes that the involvement of u13s puts pressure on other schools to take the sport more seriously by investing in its development.
“Tournaments such as this are a big beacon to a lot of young players and that’s one of the reasons why we merged our prep festival, which is our u13 division, as well as the u19 and u15 divisions,” he said.
“It gives boys who are 10 years old the understanding of what they can work on and what they can aspire to play and reach within our competition. That also puts pressure on a lot of schools to make investments in development within the entire process.”
Reaching the final this year, where they went down to a powerhouse Northwood side, proved that St John’s College has one of the best basketball programmes in the country.
Kock said its strength stems from the efforts put in by the coaches, players, and parents, both past and present.
“The 20th edition of the tournament reflects the foundation that has been laid by those before us,” he said.
“We have more than 450 boys that are participating in basketball within the school system, which means everybody who is part of St John’s College understands how important and how invested the school is in supporting basketball within the school.”
The 20th edition, despite facing huge obstacles, was a massive success. No doubt, the 21st edition, in 2026, will meet the same standards and likely even better them.
