Hackney Community College Basketball Academy

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The Hackney Community College's Basketball Academy Programme (HCCA, London Borough of Hackney, London UK) was launched in September 2001 following the opening of the College's SPACe Sports Centre (in Shoreditch, London N1, UK) in February that year. Construction of SPACe was funded by Sport England as a Centre of Excellence in Basketball and Cricket. Following the success of the Football (Soccer) Academy set up by Malcolm Williams in 1996, the College's Sport, Leisure and Tourism team designed the programme to engage young people vulnerable to exclusion from education to gain qualifications through engagement with a sport in which they demonstrated talent and potential. A Cricket Academy Programme was launched along similar lines by the same HCC Team in 2002 and this too continues to flourish and grow. In the last 5 seasons, The Basketball Academy has grown and experienced unprecedented success on court and in developing players aged between 16 and 20 (men and women) from all over London, as well as enhancing their life chances through qualifications gained whilst studying at HCC (see Hackney College).

Operating in an area recognised historically as a hot-bed of basketball development and talent thanks to the work carried out by Joe White at Homerton House School and Hackney White Heat along with the success of East London Royals Basketball Club and Haringey Angels Women, HCCA coaches Tony Garbelotto (co-founder with Joe White of the London Towers Junior Programme in the 1990s) and Solomon Ayinla have helped develop over 150 players since 2001. Players such as Darius Defoe, Perry Lawson, Jeff Danchie and Jean Wakanena have graduated to play professionally for Newcastle Eagles and Plymouth Raiders in the British Basketball League. Many others have represented England and Great Britain at Junior level and have graduated to US High School/College Programmes and British University programmes.

Academy players train for 2 hours every week-day and play matches on Wednesday afternoons and Friday evenings in a variety of competitions. From an initial fixture list of 25 matches in 2001/02, all Academy teams now play a combined total close to 100 matches per season. In 2006/07, Academy teams played 87 competitive matches in 14 different competitions, winning 10 titles and finishing runners-up in 3. Academy Teams had an 80/7 winning record in 06/07. The programme is fully inclusive. Students who want to learn/improve their basketball skills train alongside the "elite" players. These players form the HCCA B Team and have won the South East Student Sports Association (SESSA) Cups and Premier League for 4 of the last 5 years.

On-court success has been constant over the last five years and unrivalled by any other College Academy Programme in the UK (of which there are now many). HCCA U19 Men are unbeaten in any National competition since 2002 and have won the British Colleges Sport (BCS) National Championship for the last four years and BCS and English Schools (ESBBA) National Academies Cup for the last three years. HCCA Under 19 Women have also won all their equivalent BCS and ESBBA Cups and Championships over the last two years and currently hold two out of the three National Titles available. The Senior Men (all under 20) are the current London Metropolitan Basketball League Premier Division Champions and have won this title for three out of the last four years.

HCCA also has very strong links with London United Basketball who play in the British Basketball League (BBL) and play their home matches at SPACe. HCCA Coach Tony Garbelotto is also Head Coach of London United and Assistant Head Coach of the Great Britain national basketball team(men). HCCA Coach Solomon Ayinla is a former pro player (Europe and the UK), Assistant Coach with the Nigerian National team and Head Coach of the London Metropolitan University Basketball Programme (runners-up in the BUCS Championship in 2006 and 2007). Current HCCA Administrator (2001-present) Chris Morris is also Operations Director for London United.

Note The name "SPACe", home of the HCC Basketball Academy and London United, derives from Sport and Performing Arts Centre. See Hackney Space Centre.