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11 February 2026  4 min read

Planting the seeds for grassroots basketball growth in Barrow

The foundations for the club’s development were laid before the club embraced Basketball England’s entry-level basketball programme for five-11-year olds, most notably through the Go Girls project, which launched around six months earlier.

The man heading its growth is Chris Smith, whose involvement with Barrow Thorns goes back more than four decades.

“I first became involved with Thorns as a player in 1982, I was about 13,” Smith said.

“I was recruited by the club founder and then head coach, Ian France, after leaving school, getting a job and moving away from Barrow.

“I had a spell away from basketball altogether, but when I returned to Barrow in 1994, I started playing recreationally again, and when my oldest child began playing around 2003, I completed my coaching award and took on the Thorns under-14 girls’ team. I have been involved ever since.”

Since turning his hand to coaching in 2003,  Smith has coached the Thorns’ juniors across all age groups, both boys and girls, has spent around 10 years coaching the senior men’s team, and even coached a senior women’s team during its single season.

However, it was at a point when grassroots basketball in the area was struggling. Participation had traditionally depended on schools, but the numbers had dropped.

Recruitment became increasingly difficult and, when COVID hit in 2020, the club was left with just three teams - senior men, under-18 men and under-14 girls.

When life was beginning to get back to normal, it was clear that a different approach was needed. Smith took ownership of grassroots recruitment and delivery.

Smith and the club shifted away from their sole reliance on schools, and he used the Hoops Basketball Centre - the home of the Thorns - to deliver engaging grassroots sessions. Through social media, the numbers gradually grew.

At its peak, the club welcomed more than 200 children per week, and currently, it has 186 young prodigies regularly attending. But Smith also wanted the girls to have their own sessions.

“The goal is not as easy when it comes to girls, and whilst we had a good number of girls attending the grassroots sessions, they were across multiple school years,” Smith explained.

“There was a danger that if we didn’t do something for them, we would lose them to other sports. So, in November 2024, the Go Girls project was born, which recruited girls from our grassroots sessions.”

Funded by £5,000 from Sport England’s Movement Fund, the project removed financial barriers by covering the costs of equipment, court hire, competition fees and kit, while also providing clubwear to foster a strong sense of belonging.

In total, 11 girls were recruited, all of whom remain with the team and now compete successfully in the Basketball North West League.

From the Go Girls project, then came their idea to introduce the Basketball England initiative Slam Jam in May 2025.

“We delivered [Slam Jam] on a Sunday, hoping to attract new players into the existing grassroots stuff, and we did find roughly 10 new players, male and female, who are now attending every week,” said Smith.

Growth in player numbers also demanded growth in people. Over this period, the club has trained four Level 2 coaches, around 15 Level 1 coaches, four Level 1 referees and numerous table officials, alongside developing the volunteer infrastructure needed to support teams.

In just four to five years, Barrow has grown from three teams to seven, supported by a thriving grassroots programme and a growing network of coaches and officials. What began as a fight for survival has become a sustainable pathway for basketball in Barrow, from primary school to adult participation.

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