Woodrush chasing national glory - The Redditch Standard

Woodrush chasing national glory

Redditch Editorial 15th Mar, 2019   0

WOODRUSH High School pupils have enjoyed a sustained period of basketball success and hopes are high of netting more glory.

The team highlight has been the year nine team becoming Worcestershire champions and embarking on the road to success on the national stage, but there has also been plenty more achieved.

After the year eight team reached the semi-final of the district championship, only narrowly missing out on a place in the final, it was over to the year nines to show what they could do.

The team started their success by emphatically winning the district championship to be crowned Redditch under 14s champions. The side remained undefeated throughout and claimed 20-plus-point wins in every game.




As district champions, it was then on to the County Games to play all the other champions from across Worcestershire. At Bromsgrove School, Woodrush defeated Bromsgrove, Dyson Perrins and reigning county champions Blessed Edward thanks to superb play from the likes of Fred Aris, Tyrese Lacey, Max Bromwich-Lee and Jamie Bushell.

Two further victories followed in the round-robin event as Woodrush completed a clean sweep of five wins to become 2019 Worcestershire champions and secure a place in round one of the National Championship against Blessed Robert of Burton, who were defeated 68-19.


This week, Woodrush, inspired by star player Lacey who scored more than 60 points individually, were 98-50 victors over another local side – Alcester Grammar – in their last 24 clash to maintain their dreams of being crowned national champions.

Whilst this success has been very much a team effort, there can be no denying the impact of Lacey – the 14-year-old tipped as a future England star and recently ranked number one in England at under 14 level.

Ben Taylor, Woodrush head of year ten and PE teacher, said: “From a very early age, Tyrese had a passion for sport and in particular basketball. Tyrese spent hours as a five, six and seven-year-old perfecting his skills at home and on the court.

“This led to him joining the City of Birmingham club who soon spotted his clear talent for the sport. Tyrese later went on to join Team Birmingham Elite BC at 12 years old.

“By the time Tyrese had turned 11 and joined us here at Woodrush, he had already been spotted by West Midlands Basketball and selected for their squad, making him one of the county’s best basketballers for his age group.

“This talent was quickly spotted at Woodrush and in year seven Tyrese not only played in the year 11 basketball team but top-scored in his first performance with 18 points.

“However, these fantastic achievements were surpassed when Tyrese turned 13 in year nine. Still playing for the West Midlands and having now become a key player in the squad, Tyrese was spotted on a national level and asked to be part of the England U14s national team – a place where future national stars of the sport are born.

“Within the national squad, standard procedure is that England Basketball rank the national pool players at each age group. Deservedly, Tyrese was given the number one ranking for all players at under 14 in England.”

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