Loading ...Originally written by DEAN MILLARD
THE new season of the Portland Basketball Association is set to kick off in just under two weeks time, with the possible return of two divisions to the women’s competition set to be a huge step forward in the development of women’s basketball in Portland.
Plans have been made to bring back a division one competition for women in Portland, with clubs from Hamilton being invited to take part in both men’s and women’s competitions.
Should the association receive nominations from at least four teams for women’s division one, it will end the strange situation that currently sees the top level of basketball for women in Portland being known as division two.
PBA organiser Karen Drummond said at this stage the association was just waiting to hear who would nominate for the competition, but said she hoped all of the local clubs would support the move.
“Clubs were asked to nominate in all divisions, and teams have got to be in by Friday, July 1, July for a July 11 start,” Drummond said.
“I’m not sure until the teams come in, but we are hopeful for some Hamilton teams coming down for division one, but they haven’t got back to me in a definite sense yet.
“If we can get enough teams it will be, we need a least four teams, so if we can get four it will be back up and running and it will be on Wednesday night.
“We have the Opals team that won the grand final last season, they are looking to go into division one to give those girls some more experience and develop them a little bit more,” Drummond said.
“Tiger Sharks will put in a division one team, so we are hoping that Hamilton will come down and we would like it if the other clubs would consider putting a team into division one.
“We need to be bringing the younger players through, and at the moment there is an overload in division two women.”
Drummond also said the association was hopeful of restarting a division five women’s competition to help encourage new and inexperienced players to take up the sport.
“We hope to get also division five women back up and running,” she said.
“We used to have it a while ago, but it just sort of fell off.
“We have found with our lower grades there is a big fall off, and there was a big gap between what was division four and what we would call division five.
“The numbers are there all ready, we just need the clubs to rearrange their teams accordingly, and if they are short one or two to suss out those extra players who would like to play.
“Division five is just like learning. If they have never played before it doesn’t matter, it is just more social and about having fun.”
Other developments during the off season included a change to the junior basketball and referee committees, with Drummond saying they had now become sub-committees of the PBA.
“We have been running unconstitutional.”
“There should be only one committee, and that is the Portland Basketball Association, because we are incorporated, so the junior committee as such is a junior sub-committee of the Portland Basketball Association Incorporated.
“Nothing has really changed, just things have been brought into line in a correct manner.
“There won’t be any junior president or secretary, because under the rules of corporation there is only one president and one secretary, but they will have a chairperson on the junior sub-committee and the referee sub-committee who will sit at their meetings.”
Drummond said that although there were a few issues with the changes at first, all parties seemed to have accepted the alterations.
“It is now, there were (a few issues) with juniors at first, but I think it was just a misunderstanding, they don’t understand correct procedures and how incorporations and constitutions work, but after a meeting finally with them I would hope that they have some sort of understanding.”
Other developments on the horizon at the stadium include a referee school run by Basketball Victoria on July 3, a level one coaching accreditation clinic on July 23 and 24, an under-10 mini tournament on July 6 and the new season of juniors on July 12, with registrations closing for teams and players tomorrow.
Print 
PDF
Comments are closed