A 40-year drought has been broken by a “group of remarkable young girls”, with the Swan Hill Flyers under-12 girls team winning the division 1 Junior Country Basketball Championships title on Sunday.
The Flyers capped off a record-breaking summer, where they won 36 of their 38 matches played, beating the Bacchus Marsh Lions 51-39 in the grand final at Bendigo’s Red Energy Arena to be crowned the Victorian country champions in the under-12 girls’ division.
It’s the first time since 1983 that a team from Swan Hill has won a division 1 title at the Junior Country Championships, with this incarnation emulating the feats of the Flyers under-12 girls’ team from 41 years earlier.
To highlight their dominance, this year’s team went through the tough three-day tournament undefeated, winning all nine matches across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Flyers beat some of the country Victoria’s powerhouse teams such as the Bendigo Braves, Horsham and Warrnambool.
Coach Tess Denham was in awe of her squad’s achievements following the record-breaking weekend.
“I can’t put it into words to be honest, it still doesn’t feel real in a way,” Denham told The Guardian after their 12-point grand final triumph.
“The girls have dedicated so much time and effort into their basketball and it has really paid off in the end – the whole squad deserves so much credit, I just can’t believe it.
“We’ve won every game apart from one loss and one draw for the entire season.
“That loss was in a tournament in Bendigo in January, which was a grand final against Warrnambool who we played and beat in the semi-final on the weekend.”
Having won their way through to the finals on Sunday, the Flyers defeated Moe 40-27 in the quarter-finals, before facing off against Warrnambool in the semi-final. There would be no repeat of January’s result however, with Stella Scott (20 points) and Ivy Patterson (14) dominating the court to secure an emotion charged 44-40 victory.
Scott then repeated her heroics in the grand final, once again posting a game high 20 points, with Mia Hirst (14 points) and Patterson (9) also contributing in the 51-39 victory, with Denham highlighting the effort of the entire team post-match.
“The atmosphere was crazy, there was such a huge crowd and it was loud and intense,” Denham said.
“We didn’t know what to expect as we hadn’t played Bacchus Marsh before and it was our first time facing them, but our energy was up and the whole team played well.
“We beat every team that was in the top five across the whole summer, traditional powerhouse teams like Ballarat, Traralgon, Warrnambool and Bendigo.
“To play against those tough teams and beat them was outstanding and in my view means we really did deserve to win the division 1 title.”
With basketball and in particular female sport in our region continuing to grow, the win couldn’t come at a better time for Denham and the Swan Hill Flyers, who are still getting back on their feet after having three years of home junior tournaments cancelled between 2020 and 2022 due to COVID and floods.
“This is huge for our basketball community, we’ve struggled so much with numbers in the girls competition and we’ve been trying so hard to build that back up over the last couple of years,” Denham said.
“It means so much that we’ve been able to firstly engage with the girls, but to then put it into playing against tough opposition and beating is massive for not only our team, but our Swan Hill basketball community.
“It was a gruelling weekend for the girls, they played nine games over three days and were absolutely exhausted by the end of it. they were sore and hurting, but everyone, the coaches, parents, families are all so proud.
“I was very emotional after the game, I’m extremely attached to all the girls because we’ve been working together for about eight months and it’s been such a huge commitment from all the girls.
“All the group sessions and individual sessions, it’s all worth it now, it’s exhausting but we wouldn’t want it any other way.”
