Inclusive basketballers from Ashburton will be joined by players from the Special Olympics Canterbury basketball team this weekend.

They will be at EA Networks Centre on Sunday from 10am to 12pm.

Organiser Fiona Tait said the session was about ‘‘building relationships and making connections really, and then also doing some basketball.’’

She said there would be some training ahead of some full-on five-on-five games.

‘‘This group, in itself, has so much fun here which is nice and they’re making a lot of connections with each other and we want to extend that further,’’ she said, of the Ashburton b’ballers.

Tait started the sessions as a way to fill a void for keen players with plenty of enthusiasm.

Her son, Lewis, 15, was a keen basketballer in his primary and intermediate years but missed out in his college years.

‘‘He loves playing basketball, he’s always been into sports ever since he was little.

‘‘But there was nothing for people who don’t get into the college teams.’’

‘‘Lewis has quite a lot of good skills, but is not good enough to get in those teams.’’

So last year, Tait started taking him to Christchurch on Monday nights to Special Olympics basketball in Christchurch.

‘‘It was really good because it was people of his level, and (had) good coaches there,’’ she said.

‘‘But both he, and I, got tired of the drive and I think he missed it because he didn’t have any of this mates there.’’

It warranted a rethink.

A trial was held for a few weeks last November and the turnout exceeded expectations.

‘‘We had 23 people turn up to our first session,’’ she said.

‘‘It was a little bit overwhelming, but it just shows the need.’’

This year, Tait has been running weekly sessions since term one, with help of Basketball Mid Canterbury, and Matt Vernick, the disability and inclusion lead from Basketball New Zealand.

They run every Monday night, at the Oxford St stadium, from 6 to 7pm from age 13-upwards, and were likely to carry on for a few weeks into term four.

‘‘Matt came down for the first three or four week and helped us get it running.’’

There is also plenty of support including from parents, Mid Canterbury Special Olympics coach Colleen Lindsay and Claudia Gelling of Primary Sports Canterbury.

Tait said the vast majority of players from the trial sessions were still involved.

During the year, Andrew Sheppard, president of Basketball Mid Canterbury, also helped players into an inclusion league on a Friday night in Christchurch.

Ashburton took a visiting team of about seven players up, twice a term, Tait said.

The future could include becoming an affiliated to Special Olympics to be able to play in tournaments and events.