Coach Maitland travelled to the University of Liverpool in the UK for our Mega Slam Hoops Around the World series. “Liverpool is home to some fantastic football clubs as well as a rich history in music, but what we’re about to explore is a hidden gem on campus at the University of Liverpool, which has brought together an exciting diverse community of students.
People Like to Stay Here
We play here everyday, usually at night. It gets pretty busy, like 20 people and there’s like 10 people on this little bench that we have. People go to that court too but this is the main one. People like to stay here, I like to stay here.
This Oasis, this incredible feature of two courts is literally transforming people’s lives. I don’t think anybody expected the impact to be so great, but to see what’s happening in the flesh has been phenomenal.”
Coach continued his tour of campus, meeting up with Andy Craig, Director of Sports at the University of Liverpool. Andy leads the team responsible for installing two MegaSlam 60 hoops outside of the Sports & Fitness Centre on campus.
Andy offered some great insight into the benefits experienced at the University. “We’ve got a huge athletic Union of 54 clubs, one hundred and ten or so teams and nearly five thousand members, so it’s a big operation. Our big challenge is to find new spaces for students, staff and visitors to do new things. Our indoor facilities are full. We’re trying to address that with a new sports centre on the horizon and extending the current one but we also need to look outside.
Enhancing the Campus
It (the hoop installation) enhances the campus, but it also gives us those spaces where we can encourage people to be more active. Basketball is really popular in the university and in the local neighbourhoods, so it was an obvious solution for us to look at the possibility of putting outdoor hoops down. As you can see around the campus, there’s not that many free spaces so outside the sports centre seemed a sensible place.
So we’ve got a hub of activity and to be honest, it surpassed all of our expectations. We get notifications for our security people that students are playing until two or three o’clock in the morning!”
For institutions considering similar basketball hoop installations, A Comprehensive Guide to Basketball Hoop Selection for Educational Institutions offers some valuable insights.