HUNDREDS of talented juniors from 85 teams will descend on Swan Hill this weekend for the Swan Hill Basketball Associations Junior Tournament.
Held on Saturday and Sunday across six different venues, the tournament made a successful return last year after a three year absence, with this year’s event set to open the representative season for the Swan Hill Flyers’ junior squads.
The Swan Hill Flyers senior teams to play the Mildura Heat on Friday night as a curtain raiser and kick start what looms to be another big weekend of basketball, according to Swan Hill Basketball administrator Tess Denham.
“Preparations for the tournament have been going really well, we have 85 teams entered this season, which is fantastic for our association,” Denham told The Guardian this week.
“It’s a great event that’s not only an amazing opportunity for our kids to play at a high level, it’s also great for the town to have such an influx of people.
“Ash Roberts has been working hard behind the scenes to make sure all the venues and equipment are all sorted and Georgia Styles has been busy organising the competition side of things for the tournament.
“Everyone at the club has been doing a power of work to get everything organised for the weekend, it’s a massive job to make sure it runs smoothly, but we’re all looking forward to a very busy but successful weekend.”
Despite less entries this year, the club will still host two divisions across four age groups in both boys and girls, with ages ranging from under-12s through to under-18s.
With such a large number of games to be played, extra venues will be called upon in addition to the Swan Hill Stadium, with the FLO Centre, St. Mary MacKillop College, St. Mary’s Primary School, Swan Hill Aquatic and Recreation Centre and Lake Boga basketball court all required.
“We have less teams this year due to more basketball tournaments in Victoria popping up this weekend or either last or next weekend,” Denham said.
“More associations are wanting to have tournaments towards the end of the year, which does make it hard to get more associations to come to ours.
“Unfortunately associations choose to have tournaments when it suits them, but ours is still extremely well attended because of how well organised it is.
“We will have 14 Swan Hill Flyers teams playing this year, which is the most we have had in a long time.”
Off the back of a highly successful representative season last year, where several Flyers teams won division titles across various tournaments, Denham is hopeful of another strong showing from local teams at home.
”The kids are ready for their first tournament of the season, we have a really exciting group of kids playing and I think they are all looking forward to starting their summer,” Denham said.
“There’s no pressure or expectation this season, all our teams are very different and there’s different dynamics and kids working together, so I think the only thing is to make sure the kids are developing and learning something new this season and making sure we bring the best out of each other.
“I think having our first tournament here at home is great, we have many new families involved and they will all get to see what this kind of basketball is like.
“It’s a lot easier on those families to start at home with not having to travel, but it’s also a good starting point to see where we are at too and where we need to focus when it comes to developing as a team.”
