Four Haringey Sixth Form College and Haringey Hawks youngsters have all bagged scholarships as they look to take their games to the next level following impressive seasons.

Ham & High: Haringey Hawks celebrating their success (Pic: Franck Batimba)Haringey Hawks celebrating their success (Pic: Franck Batimba) (Image: Archant)

Alex Distras, Ndewedo Newbury, Owen Young and Charles Harding have all shone as their team enjoyed success by winning a number of trophies.

The team are currently National Under-18 Cup champions, ABL champions, Youth Games champions, National Under-18 League South Premier champions, LBA champions and EYBL Group C Stage 1 and 2 champions.

Distras will attend top prep school Scotland Campus in Pennsylvania, as Newbury goes to Loomis Chaffee in Connecticut and Harding to Keba Prep in Ohio, while Young heads to the Selfoss Karfa Academy in Iceland.

Head coach Franck Batimba said: “The Covid-19 situation forced the season to a premature end. I initially found it hard to accept. My players had worked so hard and for a number of them, it was their last season playing together as they were in their final year at college.

“But with four players receiving scholarship offers, it has definitely helped me to appreciate the importance of this season.

“They are not just great players, they are also great young men. They have worked tirelessly on and off the court to ensure they get the grades required for them to be able to accept these amazing opportunities.

“I am very fortunate to have a principal who has similar values and who is very supportive of what I am doing here.

“This season alone has seen four of our players successfully earn scholarships to schools abroad where they will continue to develop as a student athlete.”

The youngsters typically train every day and play two or more games per week to give them a 50-plus game schedule in the season across a variety of competitions to prepare them for the next stage of their careers.

“We believe one of the best ways to develop is to have as much in-game experience as possible, and our programme caters for exactly that,” added Batimba.

With the recent addition of the U20 EYBL competition, players are also able to travel to new places around the world and see different cultures, all while competing against elite European talent.

Last season the team travelled to Italy successfully, winning eight out of eight games.

“The EYBL tournament was a lot of fun, getting to travel to new places with my brothers was something I will never forget and coming home with a Trophy to show for all of our hard work made it even better,” said Distras of the EYBL competition.