As you may have already heard, our very own Gregor Gray has been selected to represent Team GB at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.
Gregor, who plays for the U18 Mens team, will be competing in the Basketball 3×3 discipline in Australia.
The competition takes place between the 17th and 20th of January 2013 and he is to be joined by another Edinburgh based player - Malcolm Winning of Boroughmuir Blaze.
Many congratulations to both players on this fantastic achievement!
Below is a copy of an article about Gregor that is taken from the basketballscotland website.
Meet Gregor…
Gregor Gray is an up-and-coming basketball player who has been re-selected to represent Scotland at under 18 level in 2013. Gregor, who attends North Berwick High School, was a key player in the Edinburgh Kings Cadets unbeaten season last year – leading his team to league, Scottish Cup and playoff victories. After an impressive club season he represented Scotland in the European Championships at under 16s and under 18s level. At Euro C in 2012, Scotland U16s came away with a 2nd place finish after being beaten in a close final against Monaco. Gregor’s individual performance was recognised by the organisers as he made the all star tournament team.
- How did you first start playing basketball?
I first started playing when I joined North Berwick Basketball Club, East Lothian with Coach Marie Caie. - When was this?
I was age 9 and in P5 at Law Primary School, North Berwick. Later in S1, I was selected to East Lothian’s Performance Athletes in Schools Programme. My great coach for many years was Stevie Duff. - Who inspires you?
I was certainly inspired by my former and present coaches – Jim Wright and Doug Reilly. I am inspired by the great players ahead of me – two brothers from my home town of North Berwick – Ali and Grant Mackay both out in the States and by senior men Kings players who have represented Scotland and GB. - What do you feel is your main strength as a basketball player?
My height and core strength help a lot. I feel my main strengths are my focus and stamina and I work a lot on my stamina at strength and conditioning sessions through PAis and at City of Edinburgh Kings. - What do you feel you could improve about your game?
Everything. In particular my speed and ball handling and certainly, according to my coach, my shooting! There’s a very long way to go. - How does it feel to be selected for the under 18 national squad?
It feels great to be selected and with a big group of other 1996 players from last years u16 squad – it’s even better. I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to play in the u18 national team last summer in Sarajevo – it’s a huge, huge step up from Euro C. It was a very steep learning curve and very intense. I enjoyed every minute of it. The opportunity to watch other teams’ style of play was invaluable as was the experience of playing much tougher competition.
