By JARROD POTTER
CASEY Basketball Association has been honoured with a pair of poignant Basketball Victoria Awards.
The association was awarded the state organisation’s highest honour – winning Association of the Year on the back of a rise in memberships and co-ordinating a number of successful programs for players, referees, coaches and City of Casey area schools alike.
A rapid increase in playing numbers has seen junior participation increase from six-courts to 16 recently while senior Tuesday/Thursday competition has also increased by approximately 30 per cent.
President Daniel Phillips said it was overwhelming to get the recognition as Basketball Victoria’s best association in 2014, but there’s plenty left to achieve in the future.
“It’s quite humbling really to be honest,” Phillips said.
“We know that we’ve been putting in the effort and it’s good to be recognised and appreciated for doing such a good job.
“It’s a great reflection of the growth of the south-east and how many kids want to play basketball – I don’t think everyone realises how popular the sport is out this way.
“We know there’s a lot of hard work ahead as well – it doesn’t mean we stop.”
Capitalising on last year’s stellar effort, Phillips said it was important the association continued to excel, especially with a major renovation to Casey Indoor Leisure Centre, set to begin in July.
“It’s (the renovation) going to allow us to be accessible by more kids – more kids being able to play as at the moment we’re probably on the verge of capacity,” Phillips said.
“We hire 16 courts on a Saturday, so having the extra four courts in a way will increase what we can do and with our Big V teams getting that show court, we’re looking at hopefully in the next few years going to Big V Championship and maybe even SEABL.
“The support we get with Big V is probably one of the best in the league for spectators – so having a 1500 seat stadium we’ll really be able to showcase what we can produce.”
Casey Basketball Association vice-president Simon Krug said the associations’ programs developing players, coaches and referees, as well as community school visits alike, were crucial to their successful 2014.
“It’s a great feeling and we’ve put in a lot of volunteer hours to get it all done,” Krug said.
“We’ve done a lot of work with our corporate governance and business structure and we’ve put in place a lot of development programs that Jodie (Krug) runs.
“We also want to continue with more and more development and to keep on visiting the schools.
“The association also have coaching development programs and referee development programs – skilling up our referees to not only improve here, but be able to go on to the next level and referee in higher competitions.”
Casey Basketball Association also was awarded for the Greatest Membership Increase Award as numbers ballooned in 2014 by about 30 per cent.
Basketball Victoria CEO Nick Honey said Casey Basketball Association has kept in line with the tremendous growth of the south-east and is also pushing the boundaries with programs and facilities.“We commend the Casey BA’s board and management for all their hard work and commitment in ensuring they, not only grow their membership base, but also continue to develop the structures, programs and facilities required to cater for the growth,” Honey said.
The Cavaliers’ were also involved in another award, with Star News Group journalist Jarrod Potter’s article on Lara Pauline’s retirement “Cav Lara Calls it Quits” winning the Basketball Victoria 2014 Best Media Story.
