Young under 18's train with the Illawarra Hawks

The Young Pacers players got to see first hand what it takes to make it at the top level of basketball in Australia.

The trip was organised so the Pacers squad could get a unique experience within their 2017 season preparations.

Association spokesperson Kelly Slater said the players gained valuable experience and advice from the Hawks.

“The weekend started early on the Saturday with players and parents able to join the Hawks pre-game training session,” she said.

“After the training session an hour of tuition from the senior coach of the Hawks, Rob Beveridge followed.

"Bevo is one of the most respected coaches in the NBL and a great supporter of grass roots basketball.”

Mrs Slater said the players were able to watch the Hawks in action to see the parallel between training drills and match play.

“At the conclusion of the training session the players were invited to watch the Hawks play a game for premiership points,” she said.

“The Hawks beat the Melbourne United side in a close contest so the weekend proved to be a big event for both the Pacers and Hawks.”  

Mrs Slater said the weekend has both the female and male Pacer squads fired up for a big 2017 season.

“The Young Pacers will be returning to the representative arena when the Girls travel to Narranderra and the Boys to Griffith for the first rounds of the Western Junior League Competition,” she said.

“The competition involves three rounds of games with the top four proceeding to finals.  

“Towns who compete are Narranderra, Orange, Griffith, Dubbo, Bathurst and Lithgow to name a few so the competition will be played at a high level.”

Coach of the Woman's side Daniel Slater said It will be a tough ask for the teams this weekend.

“Because our players do not have the opportunity to play week in week out, they will go into the competition lacking actual match practice,” he said.

“But the players have worked hard in the off season and have trained the house down in recent weeks so anything is possible.

“The Hawks, on the other hand, enter the third game of the best of three semi finals series against the Adelaide 36ers at Adelaide and are hunting for a win and to progress to the Finals, so it was good for our players to see how a team prepares and plays when they are in finals contention.”