Facilities for the class (courts, etc)+ other courts for non-bball PE classes.
Support of all the teachers, espec. PE staff...

decent players

how did your team go tonight afroman jnr?

there was an upset in another game in 16 1's

it's continuity baby - gotta get the young ones involved. Ie, build a progam from your yr 8's through so you've got the depth at opens.

beat south by around twenty
who was the upset?

i can only speak from what i kno about my old school
we play volleyball and are hoping to be known as a specialist volleyball school, we attend the australian schools cup each year in melb and to be recognised as a specialist school we need to finish within the top 10 and have a team in the highest lvl which is called honors, higher than div 1.
im assuming to be called a specialist basketball school you would need the facilities and teams that continually place high in the comps they are involved in. also you would need teachers who are willing to do it every year, etc and need good basketball knowledge

In Victoria the 'specialist' sports schools are going nuts trying to poach whole teams full of state players from their previous schools. Haileybury got into a whole lot of strife last year because they gave the entire vic volleyball team 'general' scholarships to attend, as well as waterpolo teams and basketball teams to a lesser extent..
Down here its not about being good at one sport, its about being awesome at them all! Its crazy! So much underhand dealing! I heard that one young athlete was asked how much his scholarship to one school was worth, and promptly got offered a larger one to go to another school!

So pretty much theres only one thing required to become a great 'specialist sport' school; Money. And no conscience...

You'd think Trinity could be considered a bit of a basketball specialist school.
Have the best facilities in SA, always up there in Open comps. have very good, dedicated coaches.
If you ask me if theres a bball specialist school in this state, it would br Trinity more than anyone else.

Possibility that Pasadena may close down. Students struggling, enrolments down and Unley and Cabra surpassing them on the basketball front.
Heard Sturt may have to move their basketball operations to Urrbrae. Anybody else heard this? Any truth in the rumour?

Pasadena High will be gone at end of 2009. Land has already been sold and leased back. Stadium and schood to be demolished. Of course being politically correct the govt have a standard denial response. Ask the head of the school.

Teacher Teacher,and where are the kidddies going to go to school?? the government has got to have the infrastructure to provide an education to the kids. And Unley is bursting at the seams and has no room for hardly anymore kids. And if they get rid of Pasadena, perhaps then we will be in the Unley High zone as I live smack bang in the middle of Unley School and Pasadena HIgh and I will send my kids there.

That being the case, Unley would be swamped with kids and the government couldn't refuse them as there has to be a school zoned to where you live. And yes some will have to go to Blackwood, Hzamilton etc etc, but there are a huge amount of parents paying private school fees, living in Mitcham Council area that cannot get their kids into Unley, and I would remove mine from their very expensive school which I work my ass off to send them too and send them to Unley.

Are you sure about that as I live on the wrong side of the railway track and applied to Unley for my lad and got an acceptance from Pasadena. I have had no other contact from Unley to say go on a waiting list or anything, was just buckpassed to Pasadena High, which kept sending me letters of congratulations and letters about orientation days etc, even though I rang them to say I applied to Unley not Pasadena. The lack of numbers at Pasadena made me think more than twice about sending him there, and if what you say is true Im glad I didn't. But I still dont think they have the infrastructure at Unley, as they would have given him a spot if they did or at least put him on a wait list.

My understanding is that if you live in the zone, you can't be refused a public enrolment at year 8, but if you've gone private then your enrolment spot is vacant.

This thread is gold. It's gone from Specialist Basketball Programs, to what happened in under 16 div 1s, to Pasadena closing down and Sturt moving, to the government and zoning of public schools, oh and then back to Sturt.

Just another day on teh hard hitting Hoops SA

I would not normally read or comment on this site but am forced to now that it has been drawn to my attention. I will state my credentials straight up. I have 2 children attending Pasadena High School, am President of the Governing Council and have been part of meetings with DECS staff as well as the PHS Principal.

Anon 186821, you're spreading scurrilous rumours with no factual basis.

teacher, teacher 186828, your comments constitute libel and slander as well as having no factual basis.

Fact: Pasadena High School will not be shutting down at the end of 2009

DECS have unequivocally stated that they will not close down any school without consultation. As Anon 186832 states, there would have to be somewhere for existing students to continue their education, and all the "favoured" schools are filled to overflowing.

As for the rest of teacher, teacher's post, it's all untrue. DECS just spent thousands of $ repairing a ceiling fault that at least 10 other schools have; no talk of shutting us down. Last year DECS paid for the whole stadium to be resurfaced. The stadium is subject to a joint agreement between DECS, PHS, BSA and Sturt Basketball Club which has a lease that goes past 2009. PHS has ongoing development plans (with DECS & council involvement) that extend well past 2009.

Fact: Pasadena High School has a small school population

But not small enough to be shut down by DECS's own criteria. We have facilities for 1,000 students and currently have only 300. Want your child fighting for attention at a large over-crowded school? Go there if you want. We also have students from Unley, Scotch, Flinders Australian School of Maths and Sciences using our facilities and courses, and we make use of Hamilton and Flinders ASMS when necessary.

Fact: Pasadena High School has a fantastic basketball program

Our current playing rep isn't good because the size of our student group currently limits the strength of teams we can field and because people like teacher, teacher spread false rumours about our imminent closure or harp back to our past Daws Road days (which still produced guys like Scott Ninnis, Wayne Phillips, Scott Welsh, Daniel Pierce, Brad Newley, Joe Ingles and our current federal Minister for Youth and Sport, Kate Ellis).

We now have Brendan Mann (ex AIS grad, ex-Cannons, ex-Newcastle captain, current West Adelaide player) as a 10-year appointment PE teacher to head our basketball program. Like your child to receive specialist intensive personal coaching without paying huge fees? Sounds good to me. But you'll have to wait until he returns from taking a touring party of our stronger players to run some country clinics. I know he's keen to restore our playing reputation and your child could be part of that.

Fact: I'm passionate about Pasadena High School

We've got dedicated teachers, great facilities, a fantastic principal, and we're all trying to build the school up. We have well-advanced plans that I can't even mention yet. Apologies for the big promotional spiel but it beats me why some people feel the need to attack us, and anonymously too.