Where Stevenage Basketball Starts

The gym at St John Henry Newman was full of small shoes on the morning of Sunday 4 October 2026.

Fourteen children, some of them barely tall enough to see over the ball, spent the session learning to dribble, to pass, and to get low into a defensive stance and slide their feet. Some came in full kit. There were Spartans jerseys and Trojans jerseys, a Celtics shirt, a Hello Kitty top, and one very serious young man in a Globetrotters vest. A few came in a plain white tee and borrowed a ball. Nobody minded either way.

Who put it on

It was organised by four NEHBL players, all of them from the 35+ division. Hansel Judilla, Bobby Hatague and Robert Oneza of the Spartans, and Tom Ryan Coyoca of the Trojans. These are men who spend their Friday nights playing in the Invitational Cup, and who gave up their Sunday morning on 4 October to teach children how to hold a basketball properly.

Hansel put the reason simply. They wanted the kids involved too, for the future of Stevenage basketball, and the whole thing was planned for the parents and the children together, so that both of them get into the sport.

That last part matters more than it sounds.

How the morning ran

It was a proper session, not a free for all with a bin of balls. They warmed up first, defensive laterals and sprints, the unglamorous part that every coach knows the children will complain about. Then the ball work: dribbling, then layups, then shooting.

The best bit came at the end, when they split the group and let them actually play. The older kids went three on three. The younger ones played four girls against four boys, which was every bit as competitive as that sounds, and was comfortably the loudest ten minutes of the morning.

Not a drop off

A lot of junior sport is a drop off. A parent parks, hands over a child, and comes back an hour later. This was not that. Parents stayed. They watched, they helped, and they chased the little ones who were far more interested in the ball than in the drill. In the team photo at the end, the dads are standing in the back row in their own kit, because most of them had a run themselves once the children were finished.

That is the point. The idea is not to produce one or two talented juniors. It is to make basketball something a family does together on a Sunday, in the same hall, at the same time, week after week.

The longer game

There is a bigger reason underneath it. The players who built NEHBL are not getting any younger, and the 35+ division exists for a reason. If there is going to be basketball in Stevenage in fifteen years, somebody has to teach the children who will be playing it. Nobody was going to arrive and do that for us, so four of our own did it themselves.

Right now this is a Filipino community session. That is simply who turned up, and who the organisers knew to ask, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But it is not the plan to keep it that way. The hope is to open it up to any child in Stevenage who wants to play, and the sooner that happens the better. A hall full of children from one community is a good thing. A hall full of children from all of them is a better one. If you are reading this and your child wants to come, that is exactly the direction we want to go in.

There is another one on Sunday 11 October

For a first session, it worked. The drills were simple enough that the children could actually do them. Nobody stood in a queue for ten minutes waiting for a turn. There were enough adults on the floor that the smallest ones got attention and the older ones got pushed a bit. And at the end everyone piled into the middle of the court for a photo, which took three attempts, because it always does.

So we are doing it again on Sunday 11 October 2026, same hall, and this time anyone can sign up.

Thanks to Hansel, Bobby, Robert and Tom for putting it on, to the parents who stayed and helped, and to St John Henry Newman for the hall.

Play hard. Play fair. Respect the game.