THE Swan Hill Flyers under-12 girls’ team have returned home as the 11th best team in the country, following their six-game journey at last weekend’s National Junior Classic in Melbourne.
The experience was an invaluable one for the 11 locals, who finished with three wins and three losses, including a 44-28 win over South Australia’s Eastern Mavericks in their final match.
That win ranked them the 11th overall, a lofty position for a team that was the only regional competitor in the 16-team tournament, with teams from across metropolitan Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.
Coach Tess Denham praised the way her team competed against some of Australia’s best players and teams.
“I was so proud of the girls, the experience of it all was amazing and it was a completely different level of basketball down there,” Denham told The Guardian this week.
“Those girls made me so proud, just with the way they played their hearts out.
“They’ve done their parents, families and their community very proud and I couldn’t be happier with them.”
The Flyers’ tournament began with a 39-34 win against West Adelaide in their opening match, before rounding out their remaining Pool A games with a 28-point loss to powerhouse Nunawading and 24-point loss to Sandringham.
While the two losses put the Flyers into the bottom half of the finals fixture, they then produced their best basketball on the Sunday, defeating Sydney’s Hills Hornets by 15 points, before falling an agonising four points short of victory against Bankstown, also from Sydney.
“It was such a relief to get a win in that first game, we started slow and then we eventually got up and about and started playing how we normally played, which was good,” Denham said.
“Overall, the one aspect of our game that we received very positive comments from a lot of different associations about was with was our girls’ defence.
“I think that was an overall reason why we had three wins and why we got got close to other teams and that’s what they were impressed with the most.
“We were undersized against most teams and I think our defence definitely helped and that was down to every one of the girls’ input.
“We didn’t have one standout player, everyone played their hearts out and contributed.
“I think overall, the girls understand that this kind of development and level for them was another step up.
“For them to play against some of the best players in the country in their age group was an invaluable experience, they loved it and thrived on it, and now they just want to keep playing.”
Denham and the Swan Hill Flyers squads will now take a short break, before the squad tryouts ramp up in July and August ahead of another busy summer season.
“We’ll have a quick little break and get straight back into it,” Denham said.
“We’ve just put out expressions of interest for squad coaches and squad tryouts later this year, so it will start back up again for another season very shortly.”
