Wallan Basketball Association has received the Victorian Junior Basketball League’s, VJBL, 2021-2022 Small Association of the Year award.
Wallan’s VJBL coordinators Michael and Jodie Schultz received the award at the VJBL Annual Delegates meeting.
Mr Schultz said the award, decided by the VJBL committee, was unexpected.
He said a shift in the club’s reputation was one of the reasons for the award.
“We’ve built a good relationship with the VJBL committee. We unfortunately used to have not the greatest reputation at the club but our reputation over the year has really flourish,” he said.
“People are hearing good things about Wallan now, which is good.
“That’s just from sort of stamping out bad behaviour, bad attitudes and things like that.
“We’re also trying to get the right coaches in place so we can develop our kids and give them an opportunity to play at the highest level.
“That’s the sort of thing we’ve been pushing to do and obviously VJBL have noticed that and noticed that talk around town was a little better than it had been. That’s part of the reason why we got the award.”
The 2021-2022 season was successful for the junior program with Wallan putting 13 representative teams on the court – including its first ever Victorian Championship, VC, team.
The under 12 boys side made the semi-finals in VC reserve, while both under 16 girls’ teams were runners-up in their division. Five other Wallan teams also made finals.
“We’ve put in a heap of hard work to try and get our program back up and running and getting as many good teams and kids through the program as possible,” he said.
“To be recognised for all the hard work we’ve been putting in is a really proud moment and it was just a good reward for all the hard work we’ve been putting in.”
Mr Schultz said growing the girls’ junior basketball program was a focus going forward.
“Unfortunately we’ve lost a few girls so we’ve only got one team in under 12s, 14s, 16s and 18s at the moment. But we’re slowly rebuilding our girls’ program and that just starts from the success which we’ve seen from last season,” he said.
“We didn’t have an under 12 girls’ team last season but this season we do. They’re really going well and really improving week to week.
“This core group of girls we’re really trying to work with and build our girls program so they can then go into our senior women’s program down the track.”
Along with developing its relationship with metropolitan basketball associations, Wallan is continuing to build connections with country basketball becoming a ‘hub for high performance’.
“It’s a really unique position that we do have that country affiliation but we’re also able to compete in the VJBL division. It’s a unique opportunity for representative program and for our one’s sides who get to go to junior country championships,” Mr Schultz said.
“It brings more opportunity for our kids to go that extra step and represent the association and Country Victoria.
“We’ve got a fair few kids that are playing in the future development under 14s program, and we’re just about to have our under 12 skills day at the club next month.
“Building those relationships and getting those pathways through Country Victoria representative teams is one thing we’re pushing, along with trying to attract good coaches to the club.”
This year under 12, 16 and 18 boys’ teams won junior country championships and two teams won at a Whittlesea Basketball Association tournament.
“Success breeds success, so hopefully if we can keep building that success, we can lure players to the club and build a stronger association that way as well,” Mr Schultz said.
