DESPITE the obvious COVID related hurdles that are still very much in front of them, the Swan Hill Basketball Association (SHBA) are still extremely determined to get their summer of basketball underway.
With community sport on hold due to current restrictions and with no official return date set for indoor competitive sport to resume in Victoria, the SHBA, as with all community sporting organisations, are very much at the behest of the Victorian Government.
Be that as it may, the local basketball community should be comforted to know that everything possible is being done to get back on the court, according to Swan Hill Basketball Association Administrator Kylie Kelly.
“We’re working our hardest to get the season up and running – we’ve got the junior teams all-ready, so when we get the go ahead to play, we will get up and start playing without any delay,” Kelly said.
“With registrations, for our junior competition, we’ll be offering money back with the number of weeks that the kids have missed as well.”
With current restrictions meaning any form of indoor competition or training is off limits, the association has had to get creative, with their current junior representative squads the main beneficiaries, according to Kelly.
“Our head coach Sharon (Denham) went out and bought the association two outdoor basketball rings so the kids can actually train outside at the netball courts, which has been a fantastic initiative for our squad kids,” Kelly said.
“The outdoor basketball rings purchase has been a huge positive; and with the current COVID situation, who knows how long this may continue for, yet at the same time they are still something that our kids can utilise for years to come.
“It’s been a really difficult start, but we’re staying as positive as we can and hopeful things will get underway soon.”
While the junior Flyers have started training on a small scale, unfortunately the senior Swan Hill Flyers haven’t been so lucky.
With Ang McFarlane leading the Women’s team and Jacob Seears at the helm of the Men’s side this season, neither team has been able to hit the court and train ahead of the commencement of the season.
“Our senior teams are in a similar position to all our junior representative squads – they’re just hopeful that things will get back to some sort of normality and eventually the season will go ahead,” Kelly said.
“We’re hoping that around mid-November things will kick off, but so far it’s just been too hard to even get training done properly, because unfortunately we don’t have any full-size outdoor basketball courts here.
“We aren’t allowed on school grounds to train, which is absolutely fair enough; we’ve got a couple of half courts here and there, but within our council area, we’ve actually got no full-size outdoor courts for us to utilize, which makes it really hard.”
The majority of junior representative basketball tournaments across the state have been rescheduled until February and March next year, hopefully giving our regions youngsters a significant window to represent their age group should the current covid situation clear.
However, with most other leagues having already snapped up the remaining dates ahead of the 2022 State Titles, it left the SHBA with little option regarding their own junior tournament.
“We haven’t rescheduled our junior representative tournament unfortunately – quite simply, there just wasn’t enough weekends to go around, so we’ve had to fully cancel it, which is a shame, but it can’t be helped,” said Kelly.
“There’s a lot of up and downs, but its more frustration with how it’s all panning out at the moment more than anything.
“We just want to get our kids out there on the court and back to some normality – even when we tried to get something happening like the winter tournament, we were a week or two out from starting and then we just got shut down again.”
Despite all the disappointment and frustration surrounding the current situation, there is light at the end of the tunnel, with the Swan Hill Basketball Association committee determined to not let all their hard work go to waste.
“We just want to let everyone know that we are still hoping our season will get up and running; bear with us, we are doing everything we can to get the kids back on the court as soon as we possibly can,” Kelly said.
“It’s been really difficult, but the committee have really banded together and we’re absolutely determined to do everything possible to make this season happen as soon as we possibly can.”
If anyone has missed out on registering for the upcoming season, particularly in the junior age groups, it’s not too late.
If your child would like to play, you can register them by emailing Kylie at shba@bigpond.net.au
