On Dec. 30, a high school team from Australia will play the Pittsburg Pirates. According to head basketball coach Greg Smith, Newington College will be in the Dallas area, and he arranged a day in Pittsburg, with activities like a bonfire, a gift exchange and, of course, basketball games."I think they come over to the Dallas area every year," Coach Smith said.
He said while browsing the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches website, he saw a listing posted for the Australian team."There was a posting on the TABC website, wanting to play teams in America," Coach Smith said. "I saw the ad and e-mailed the team." Though the name says "college," it really is a high school, he said."It's a boarding school," Coach Smith said. "They go through some sort of travel director, and they just travel over here and play."
The team comes over, he said, because U.S. basketball is recognized as the best in the world."U.S. basketball is still internationally known," he said, adding that the U.S. team wins the Olympic basketball games every four years.Newington College's program is undefeated in Australia, he said. Besides just the games, Coach Smith said he wanted to make a day of it, and planned several activities for the guests."If they're going to travel all the way over here, we're going to be good hosts," he said, "and we're going to have some fun."
The schedule for the day is as follows:
Noon — Newington arrives, gift exchange between players, meet and greet and a tour of the school.
12:30 p.m. — A picnic across the street in the park (hot links, of course).
1:45 p.m. — Tour of downtown, Prayer Tower, hot links and Pilgrim's.
4:30 p.m. — Ninth grade game.
5:45 p.m. — Junior varsity game.
7:15 p.m. — Varsity game. "The Pittsburg mayor will speak at the event, and we will have the national anthem for both Australia and USA," Coach Smith said.
9:15 p.m. — Bonfire with all kids out in country.
