The latest instalment of FIBA’s Her World, Her Rules (HWHR) campaign – implemented by Basketball England and the British Basketball Federation – took place at Manchester’s National Basketball Performance Centre (NBPC) last Thursday.
Supported by BE's North West region and the Female Basketball Association (FBA), 70 girls aged 11-15 from all over Greater Manchester and the North West got stuck into a variety of skills and drills stations, working on their fundamental basketball knowledge, before heading into games.
They were also given a taste of coaching, refereeing and the important attributes to being a great basketball player, with an off-court workshop that helped them understand the values aligned to the campaign of friendship and inclusion.
The group also met and received autographs from the stars of the GB team before they took on Estonia at the NBPC and beat them, 93-42, in their penultimate qualifying game.
“We just want more girls enjoying basketball and making new friends, and hopefully this being the positive experience they need to want to play regularly.
“We got them playing games. We also ran a positivity station, where we encouraged them to speak well about themselves and their teammates. As women and girls we can remind ourselves that we have that super power."
Burdett says that having the GB presence was an integral part of the session because it helped the girls see 'what they can become'.
The girls sent their GB role models on their way with blast of positivity - and the team would follow their win over Estonia with another in Denmark a few days later to qualify for this year's EuroBasket Women's tournament, taking place in June.
A number of basketball clubs and organisations have been selected by BE to deliver HWHR, with an estimated 1,600 girls set to enjoy and participate in events across BE’s 10 regions throughout 2025.
“It’s an absolutely fabulous campaign," said BE's Basketball North West Manager Kate Lewis, who co-delivered the engagement in Manchester.
"We have done some previous work with it and as a result of that, we recruited a load of Brownies [girl guides] to the Female Basketball Association, so it's really exciting to develop that work and develop the partnership [with BE, GB Basketball and FIBA]."
Founder of the FBA and National Cup winner Jade Bow-Butters, says her organisation's mission is to provide more opportunities to females in all roles in basketball - refereeing, coaching, table officiating and playing.
Bow-Butters said: “[The FBA] goes hand-in-hand with the FIBA initiative, providing an opportunity for girls that might not have played basketball before to express themselves, see if they enjoy it, and then hopefully they take that into the wider community and join a club.
“I’m really passionate about refereeing. It’s really important that women and girls understand it’s their role as well because when you look at the stats in the UK, a lot of referees are male, so when they go and play basketball they might not see a female referee, so it’s really important at events like this that we give them the opportunity to see if they like it.”
If you would like to find out more about any of the above events, please email [email protected]
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