Senior Champ 2017 Season

Eltham Basketball enters four teams into the Basketball Victoria's Senior State league competition known as 'Big V'. Information can be found at www.bigv.com.au

We have two 'senior' teams that compete in the top division known as 'State Championship', one for each of our Men's and Women's teams. Our other two teams (one male and female) are entered into the highest standard 23 & Under Men's and Women's competition in Australia; the 'Victorian Youth Championship'.

Our senior teams are committed to being the best team we can put together, ideally with a strong makeup of players who have come through the Eltham Wildcats program, although this isn't always possible. Our Youth teams aim to have 90% makeup of Eltham Wildcat junior graduates to provide a pathway for our players to the senior ranks.

We are the only club competing in the State Championship to not have imports playing in either our Men's and Women's teams. We are strongly committed to providing opportunities for local people to represent their basketball club/association at the highest level available. Whilst other clubs/associations invest heavily in securing international talent, we focus on building from within and developing opportunities. 

 

The Eltham Wildcats Basketball Club holds a strong tradition of success in the state senior leagues with recent State Championship Women's titles in 2011 and 2012 with our State Championship Men Runner's Up in both of the same years.

Our Senior Men head into their fourth year under the leadership of Trevor Lee. During that period, the team has progressively improved their record from year to year. In 2016, our Men made the Final Four, winning game 1, but losing games 2 and 3 away at Corio Bay. Moving into 2017, the team saw the retirement of Wildcat junior Adam Moore after a long and distinguished career. However, the graduation of Sam Whelan a Wildcat junior and 2016 star of our Youth Men's team into the Senior team for 2017, shows the pathway available to junior Wildcats. Sam who hails from Maffra and has made the trip to Eltham twice a week for the past four years, is now an Eltham resident and well entrenched as a member of the local community. We look forward to our Champ Boys Director of Coaching and Montmorency South PS teach Chris Cameron again being a significant member of the team alongside our Basketball Development Officer Jordan Canovan who just led his hometown Churchill Blue Devils to the Gippsland Conference -Country Basketball League title with 33 points in the final!

Ben Waldren - a league All Star 5 award winner in 2016 returns and is ready to take his game to a whole new level!

 

In 2017, we welcome a new Head Coach to our Senior Women, but in the same breath, the return of arguably the greatest player to come through our pathway in Katrina Hibbert. Katrina is a Wildcat junior who represented the Opals most notably at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, attended Louisiana State University (LSU), played for Seattle Storm in the WNBA and won WNBL MVP's. Her playing record is tough to beat, but now a teacher at Ivanhoe Grammar School, Katrina is developing an impressive coaching record, winning the Senior Women's State Championship coaching Hume City in 2016 and now an Assistant Coach for the WNBL Melbourne Boomers. However the Eltham Wildcats is home to 'Frog' and she is back to help get our Senior Women's team back up the ladder. The team will have have a strong Wildcats junior influence. We see the return of 2015 league All Star 5 member Olivia Bontempelli, Simone Ruedin has returned from the US College system and comes home to the Wildcats alongside Georgia Dale, Ally Bates, Jacqui Kitto, Ash McBean and more! The pathway for our girls to the state league is genuine as proven by the squad that Hibbert has put together. 

 

Our (23 & Under) Youth Championship teams also play in the highest division possible in Victoria. Our Youth Men have a new Head Coach in Daniel Smith. In the last two years, the Wildcats Youth Men have made the final four being knocked out in the Preliminary Final. Daniel takes the reins having been Assistant to our Senior Men the last two seasons and having been appointed as the Victorian U20 Men's Head Coach for 2017. In 2016, of the 19 players who hit the court for the team, 18 of them were either graduates of our junior program or current players within our juniors, a record we are immensely proud of. The Youth teams are in place to foster our juniors into senior ranks and guide them towards our Senior teams. We see the return for our Youth Men of Sean Clarke, Jeremy Costa, Conor Westall and the addition of U20 Victorian state representative Ovie Magbegor.

 

The Youth Women like the Men is built predominantly from graduates of our junior program. Led for the second year straight (and fifth overall) by Matt Holland, the team will be a mix of young rookies, including some currently in the 18/1 Girls (also coached by Matt) with players that have been in our Youth Women's team for 2-3 years. The team finished just outside of the playoffs in 2016, but the focus of these teams is on developing young talent and the proof of this success is evident by the depth of players across our Senior and Youth Women's teams.

 

 

This program exists for the benefit of our junior players. We are proud of the percentage of players that have the opportunity to come from juniors into our senior program and we are proud to be the only Men's teams and one of the only Women's teams to not field an American import, opting to run with Australian players through all teams, providing local with the opportunity to shine.


 

 

 

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