Worcester Wolves U16 Development Squad – Season review

After the national league trials there were many players that came close, but didn’t quite make, the national league squad so the Under 16 development squad was set up with a mix of these players and people showing promise from Saturday morning sessions. The idea being that the development squad next season progress onto becoming the U16 national league team. Made up of 13 players the squad is coached by Sarah Lewis. Every Sunday morning the squad train together and over the season there has been a massive improvement in both individual and team skills. The Development squad entered the CVL and played in some friendlies.

The first game of the CVL saw Wolves take on Big Sky (a matchup of last year’s U14 final). After a close fought contest Big Sky edged the game 36-31. The month of November saw Wolves take on Frankley Falcons. After a close first half the team pulled together in the second to comfortably see out the game 36-25. Match night number 3 Wolves looked to carry forward the momentum from last month’s game when they tackled the Blazers. Another closely fought contest saw Wolves edge the thrilling 3 point game 30-27. The first game of the new year saw Wolves take on Wolves select. After Select stunned the Wolves in the first quarter Wolves righted their wrongs and ran out winners. 51-28 to Wolves. The month of February saw Wolves take on Big Sky in their second match up of the season. Wolves were looking to avenge their loss from earlier in the season but were unable to do so as Big Sky took the game 30-23. The final game of the league saw Wolves take on the Falcons. With both teams battling it out for the remaining playoff game it was always going to be a close game. Falcons proved just too strong for the Wolves but Wolves managed to keep the deficit down to just 4 points. Despite the loss Wolves secured the playoff spot on head to head results.

April saw Wolves playoff against Big Sky. After Big Sky won both the games in the league they went in as clear favourites but it was the underdogs Wolves who came out looking strong. They lead by 10 going into the half time break. Big Sky came out much stronger in the second half. After finally taking the lead the advantage was short lived as a timeout from Wolves saw them come out fired up and they regained their lead. They held out for the game and won the final 37-33 much to the delight of all the players, fans and coaches who were watching the nail-biting game.

As well as playing CVL wolves played 2 friendlies and a tournament. The first friendly saw an away game to Cheltenham where Wolves took on Hurricanes. It was a close game throughout but Wolves couldn’t quite manage to get the win and lost 37-33 but an encouraging performance showed promise of things to come. The next friendly saw them take on the U18’s. It was a game Wolves never looked like winning but a valuable learning curve for the players who played against a very tough opposition.

In the spring U16 tournament, Wolves played 5 games throughout the day. After winning their pool (3 wins out of 3) Wolves then lost in the semi-final which was disappointing considering how well they had been playing. A good day with lots of court time for everyone no matter what the results it was a good day for the team.

Written by Wolves Captain Dan Cox