Astros Men’s Basketball Team Complete First Season in the College Basketball League
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On Wednesday 5th March 2025 the Inspiration Trust Astros completed their first season in the College Basketball League (CBL) – the third tier of English U19 basketball.
It’s been a season full of learning, establishing a basketball culture and setting the foundations for years to come for the Men’s basketball team, who made the step up from the Association of Colleges (AoC) league after a fantastic first season. This new division came with fresh challenges, more experienced teams and potential obstacles for the Astros to navigate.
We welcomed several new recruits to the team from last year, with players from 7 different Norfolk basketball clubs coming together to represent the Inspiration Trust. Bringing in players from a number of different basketball backgrounds could have been difficult, and getting these players to adapt to a single system that complimented all of their skills was not easy, but each player embraced the challenge and brought something different to the team. Sure, there were bumps along the way, but players always came back stronger and pulled together when it mattered.
Our Men's Team came away 66-44 winners in our first CBL Tier 3 match, marking an awesome start to life in the higher division in September, before narrowly losing our second game of the season (56-53) to a strong Queens' School team. Our 2nd team then travelled to East Norfolk and came away with a narrow 47-46 win. We were narrowly defeated by an unbeaten Long Road team in an intense matchup that finished 71-65. We then took a trip to Bedford and were defeated in the final seconds of the game 66-64. We followed these games up with our first video review session of the year, gaining valuable performance insights for the rest of the season, and completed a Sport Psychology session, helping to bring the team together and align our goals. A loss away against a strong Queens' school rounded off the first half of our CBL season.
The last day of the winter term, Wednesday 18th of December, marked a big day in the development of our basketball programme, with the Astros and our new Supernovas (Women’s) teams taking part in a double-header home fixture against Hills Road. Supernovas put on an impressive showing in their first ever game, winning 77-46. This win was a massive credit to the hard work the Women's team had put in since starting to train in October, and we can't wait to see what they can do in the future! Astros followed up with an 86-72 win to make it 2 wins in our first ever doubleheader, taking us into the Christmas break in style! The atmosphere at this game was fantastic, and we look forward to being able to provide more of this style of opportunities in the future.
Astros started the spring term with a statement 73-69 victory over high flying Sigma Sixth Charge, showing the whole of the CBL that we mean business. This result was the biggest upset in the league this season, and showed we can compete with the best teams out there! The team played an amazing game, with stellar defence on show to keep a notoriously hot Sigma Sixth offence quiet, while playing an eye-catching, team-first style of basketball to keep the ball moving on offence. We also debuted our brand-new white uniforms, courtesy of KitFactory. We followed this up a week later with a big 70-44 win over St Martin's school.
After being devastated by injury and illness, we took just 7 players to top of the table Long Road, which included one of our Supernovas players stepping up, playing in the Men's CBL league, which is not a common sight! She, and the rest of the Astros team, put up an incredible fight on the day, leaving it all on the court and showing no fear against a strong team, losing by a respectable scoreline of 87-56. We lost our following game to a play-off chasing Bedford Basketball Academy team 79-57, but bounced back in style, beating St Martin's at home by an Astros record 34 points in a 74-40 victory and improving our record to 4-6 in the league.
The Astros then travelled across Norwich to play a friendly Vs Notre Dame, narrowly winning 52-44 in a competitive game. Astros then travelled to Sigma Sixth for the final match of the CBL season, where the opposition shot the ball incredibly well to beat the Astros 94-74, taking our final season record to 5-7 in the CBL and 8-7 overall. While the CBL season has finished, we will still be playing fixtures across the summer term to prepare for next year!
We are extremely proud of the progress our Student Athletes have made this year and look forward to seeing what they can achieve in the future. If you would like to regularly see what the players are getting up to, follow our Instagram page @inspirationbasketballacademy ! This is the best place to keep up to date with all things regarding Inspiration Trust Basketball Academy.