Amongst the hype of our final selection trials, we also took a moment on Sunday morning to present our High Performance athletes of the year with the Bert Bargeus medal.

The medal is awarded to athletes who demonstrate the qualities we like all of our athletes to exhibit; commitment, hard work, high achieving, teamwork and integrity.

See this webpage on the history of the medal and Bert's contribution to SA Country Basketball.

The 2014 recipients of the Bert Bargeus medal were Demi Skinner (Port Lincoln) and Ky Matthews-Hampton (Strathalbyn).

Demi has represented SA Country over many years with great distinction demonstrating all of the qualities we seek in our athletes. A remarkable 12 months on the court has seen Demi progress from our bronze medal winning U18 State team at the 2014 Australian National Junior Championships to a reserve in the U17 National team for the World Championships earlier in the year to earning a place in the U19 National team representing Australia at the FIBA Oceania Championships (a World Championship qualifying event) in Fiji next month.

Congratulations Demi and we wish you well on your journey beyond SA Country.

Ky represented SA Country for the first time at a National Championships this
year in the U16 State team as a bottom age player, a tremendous week rewarded with being top scorer for the tournament.

Ky's performance was possible through his commitment, dedication to training and continuous improvement. We're looking forward to watching Ky progress through our ranks.

Congratulations to both athletes.

At the same time, Bert took a moment to present Harry Mills (Willunga) with a playing singlet signed by our U16 boys State team from this year. Harry suffered a major knee injury in New Zealand representing the Country Cup this year and the singlet was a gesture of mateship from some past team mates who wanted to encourage him through the later stages of rehabiliation. Keep working Harry and we're looking forward to seeing you back on the court soon.