Gisborne has an U16 team competing, led by head coach Damian Whitten and captain Keiha Blackman.<\/p>\n
Tautau, known to most as Peips, said: \u201cOur purpose is to honour and pay tribute to Kenny through our Gizzy Hoops development initiative, and celebrate his legacy and dedication to nurturing young talent. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a beloved figure in the basketball community, known for his passionate commitment to empowering youth and fostering their potential both on and off the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cKenny was my coach mentor outside of Te Tair\u0101whiti, and a close friend to our family. By establishing this kaupapa we aim to preserve his vision of creating opportunities for young athletes to grow, learn and succeed … [and] have it serve as a lasting reminder of his contributions, inspiring future generations to uphold his values of perseverance, community and excellence in basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis initiative will help ensure that his impact continues to resonate, motivating aspiring players and enriching the sporting community in Kenny\u2019s memory: \u2018Shoot for the moon\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whiti Ora Tair\u0101whiti chief executive and basketball player Stefan Pishief is on board with the initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasketball\u2019s more than just a game. It reflects life,\u201d he said. \u201cCommunity ball is massive in Tair\u0101whiti, thanks to local champions like Peips, who strive to give opportunities to our kids that will challenge and support them in equal measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about learning life skills towards positive pathways. The growth we\u2019ve seen in many of our rangatahi over the years has been inspiring.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis memorial tournament is an awesome kaupapa, acknowledging the living legend that Kenny was and someone who cared about Tair\u0101whiti. I can\u2019t wait to see it in action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gisborne has an U16 team competing, led by head coach Damian Whitten and captain Keiha Blackman. Tautau, known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,47891,1852,38848,67835,25735,84993,76421,8835,23445,2877,36045,84994,12536,621,1787,84997,84998,57057,85,3018,8293,84996,84995,16494],"class_list":["post-120213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-celebration","tag-games","tag-gisborne","tag-great","tag-involving","tag-junior","tag-kenny","tag-kiwi","tag-late","tag-league","tag-lives","tag-mcfadden","tag-more","tag-national","tag-of","tag-played","tag-points","tag-scored","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-than","tag-titles","tag-touched","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}