Rangi Ruru Athlete Only Canterbury Rep in Junior Tall Ferns

Year 12 Rangi Ruru student, Esra McGoldrick, has been named in the Junior Tall Ferns, the only Canterbury representative in the team*.

The school’s Director of Sport, Jo Fogarty says Esra has been at Rangi since the beginning of 2016, with one of the reasons she was attracted to the school being the highly regarded Basketball programme and coaching personnel. 

“Darcy Rose is our head Basketball coach and a former Canterbury Wildcats player. Caleb Harrison who runs the development programme for Canterbury Basketball is also Rangi’s basketball programme manager. This very talented duo together with their highly respected coaching team, are invaluable in further developing our basketball programme and players,” she says. 

It’s not been an easy year for Esra McGoldrick says Fogarty.

“She spent the first part of this year recovering from an ACL reconstruction and has only been playing basketball again fully since June. In addition to being named in this squad Esra has also been named in a tournament team following the National U19 champs. She was one of the 10 best players at the tournament. Esra is an outstanding young athlete who has worked very hard to achieve what she has.

Esra’s goal (pun absolutely intended) is to head to America on a Basketball scholarship.

Earlier this year, two Rangi Ruru students, Bailey Chamberlain (Year 11) and Millie Knight (Year 10) both made the New Zealand U16 Basketball team. The young Rangi athletes were two of only four South Islanders in the squad.

*Note: Team member Charlotte Whittaker is from North Canterbury

ENDS

www.rangiruru.school.nz                                                                                       #rangi4life

The following text is from Basketball NZ’s Facebook page:

Following last week's Under 19 Championships Junior Tall Ferns Head Coach Brent Matehaere has named a 14 player squad for a two-game home series against China Under 19s.

The series will be played in Christchurch in early September with Matehaere vowing that his team will play an attractive style of basketball.

Junior Tall Ferns Squad:

Esra McGoldrick (Canterbury)
Tiarna Clarke (North Harbour)
Aliyah Dunn (Southland)
Jayden Fuiava (Queensland South)
Kendell Heremaia (Waikato)
Alyssa Hirawani (Waikato)
Joellen How (Taranaki)
Zara Jillings (North Harbour)
Charlisse Leger-Walker (Waikato)
Bayley Ransfield (Taranaki)
Tera Reed (Life Centre Academy, New Jersey, USA / North Harbour)  Nicole Ruske (Otago), Stirling Walker-Pitman (Waikato), Charlotte Whittaker (North Canterbury)

McKenna Dale (Edwin O. Smith High School, Connecticut, USA) and Darci Finnigan (Waitakere West) are selected in the extended squad but unavailable for the series v China. Coola Baudry and Katie Diakhaby were unavailable.

Games - Junior Tall Ferns v China Under 19

Game 1: Wednesday, 7 September, tip off 1.00pm

Game 2: Thursday, 8 September, tip off 7.30pm

Both games will be played at Cowles Stadium, Christchurch.