The Eagles Community Foundation (ECF) is delighted to announce the expansion of the girls programme with the introduction of an under-18’s side for the 2024-25 season.

“We are dedicated to increasing our provision for girls and women’s basketball within our programme, I am happy with our trajectory, but there is more to do”, said Ian MacLeod, Eagles Community Foundation Development Manager.

“Coupled with the growth and development of the senior Women’s British Basketball League programme we have continually expanded our provision at participation and development levels and the next step is to expand our performance pathway.

“For the 2024-25 season we will be entering teams into the Junior National Basketball League (jNBL) at U14, U16 and now U18 age brackets.

“We have girls graduating U16s who have been part of our programme for many years and with additional interest from around the area and country, we look forward to being able to support them in completing their junior basketball journey.”

This campaign has been a particularly important one for our girls programme across the academy and foundation, with more investment into growing participation in the sport through various programmes and initiatives such as girls-only pre-games prior to our Women’s British Basketball League games, ran by some of our first team players in conjunction with community coaches.

This season also saw backing from local businesses increase, with Basketmedia365 sponsoring an away trip for our under 16 girls team earlier in the season.

Trials for the whole academy are now able to be booked via nest.newcastle-eagles.com with the U18 girls trials taking place on Sunday 16^th June 1-4pm at the Vertu Motors Arena.