The 2022 1^st V Basketball squad will be forever etched in the pages of Toowoomba Grammar School history as the first TGS team to win a GPS Basketball Premiership since the competition commenced in 1984.

Head of Basketball, and 1^st V Coach, Mr Kabe Cicolini has been instrumental in the growth and success of not just our leading team, but of the TGS Basketball Program as a whole.

Kabe has come from a background of playing GPS sport – cricket, rugby and basketball as a student at Ipswich Grammar School (IGS).

“I’ve had a similar background to most of the boys here,” stated Kabe.

“Sport was everything to me and going to a Grammar School was everything to me, taking advantage of the opportunities given to me.”

His basketball coach was a huge mentor to him, igniting Kabe’s desire to coach and he took up the role at IGS straight out of school before coming to TGS in 2011 as the Sports Officer and running the Basketball Program. A year later he went to Canada to coach College basketball there. Kabe returned to TGS in 2017 as the 1^st V Coach and then the Head of Basketball in 2018. He has been steadily building the TGS Basketball Program for the past five years and this year’s GPS Premiership is a culmination of that hard work.

“I am really excited for the boys to get this first Premiership,” said Kabe.

“For me personally, it’s a weird sense of accomplishment and relief; we’ve been toiling away quietly for a long time so it’s great to see the hard work come to fruition.”

Kabe said the TGS team was not the most talented in the GPS competition, but they had common values and expectations; they focussed on a game-by-game scenario rather than becoming overwhelmed by their good results or looking too far ahead.

“We weren’t expecting to achieve as well as we did each week, but the boys kept growing, and as a result we could keep going without putting too much pressure on ourselves,” said Kabe.

“Also, central to winning this Premiership was the fact that this was the first group of boys who have genuinely grown up playing TGS Basketball, with our culture, values and style of play – even though this was the first year these boys had actually played together as a team.”

The Premiership winning match against Gregory Terrace was a nail biter. TGS had a comfortable 14-point lead going into half time (45-31) and were 59-48 coming into the third quarter but GT turned it on with the score 63 all with two minutes remaining and 65 all with two seconds on the clock. Year 10 student, Samuel Geu then had a moment that dreams are made of - he hit the winning shot with just 1.4 seconds remaining!

“I’m immensely proud of the boys,” said Kabe.

“We are so young, so I’m proud of their resilience and ability to achieve what they have already.

“I’m excited for next year too, as we have the same group, so I’m content with what they’ve achieved and I’m ready to move on to the next challenge.”

Kabe loves the fast, dynamic competitiveness of the game, but said the truly unique aspect of coaching GPS Basketball is the “revolving door of boys who you can have an impact on, the chance to shape them into good men.”

“We just get to help kids keep growing and building and achieve their goals – whatever they may be.”