27 April 2012 Lincoln University’s sports scholarship programme expands to include basketball

From 1 May 2012 Lincoln University will be offering scholarships specifically for basketball players, as part of the University’s highly competitive sports scholarship programme.

The scholarships offer financial support for high grade players as well as intensive, sport-specific training through the University’s high performance team and Canterbury Basketball.

“The announcement by Lincoln University couldn’t have come at a better time.  From 27-29 April we have the Basketball NZ U19 tournament in Christchurch and these are exactly the players who would benefit from having a basketball-specific scholarship available to them as they undertake tertiary study,” says Megan Harlick, General Manager of Canterbury Basketball Association.

“We have been working with the sports management team at Lincoln University on the details around the scholarships and we are very much looking forward to an even closer partnership.”

Lincoln University offers sports scholarships in cricket, golf, netball, football, hockey, rowing and rugby.  In addition there is the ‘elite’ scholarship awarded to strong individual athletes competing in other sporting codes.  One current elite scholar is also a basketball referee officiating at national level.

Peter R Magson  of Lincoln University’s sports programme says “we are continuously watching what all sporting codes are doing and assessing our programmes against what is needed at representative level.  We initiated talks around the basketball scholarship in response to a general increase in awareness and interest in the sport, as well as because we were seeing a number of sports scholars coming through who are very strong basketball players.”

Lincoln University has the longest-running university sports scholarship programme in New Zealand and can claim Andrew Ellis (rugby), Dale Harrop (ice hockey) and Amy Satterhwaite (cricket) amongst previous students who have been through the scholarship programme.

Applications for the 2013 scholarships open on Tuesday May 1 2012.