Warrandyte Venom SCW add two young guns to the roster

With the completion of the 2014 Big V season, Warrandyte Venom’s State Championship Women’s side farewelled five of its players.

USA import Tamara Naismith returned home, Rachael Wansborough will play with the Camberwell Dragons in Divison 1, Tiffany Hodgson and Rebecca Chan have retired and Casey Taylor will play permanently with the Venom Youth League side for season 2015.

With this turnover of players, coach Nicole Howard has been busy recruiting to put together what she hopes will be a highly competitive team. “It wasn’t hard to recognise that with five players not returning for next season we would be losing a great deal of experience at senior level. My priority has been on getting the balance right with regard to talented youngsters and seasoned campaigners who would willingly share their skill and knowledge”

Whilst the complete roster cannot be publicly finalised yet, Warrandyte Basketball can happily announce the inclusion of two young guns to the 2015 SCW Venom team.

18 year old Margaret Kershaw who has spent 3 years playing in the Venom youth league side will progress to the senior side this season.  Margaret was a premiership winning player in the YL1W 2013 title and has shown a great array of skills and potential at youth league level. Margaret made an immediate impact when she began playing youth league and junior rep basketball at Warrandyte.  She is a quiet achiever and having been recognised with league award nominations at youth league level in 2012 and 2013, was finally rewarded with both the golden hands stats award and defensive player of the year awards for 2014.

Coach Howard is thrilled to welcome Marg to the team.  “Margaret and I worked together at Youth League and I strongly believe in her ability to perform at this level.  Marg is an unassuming  basketballer who has a defensive skill set that is particularly impressive. Winning golden hands from the 4 or 5 position demonstrates her capabilities in finding her team mates and stopping the opposition. I am already enjoying watching her take new steps at training towards the Championship level that awaits her” Howard said.

Joining Margaret, as another young recruit is former Bulleen Boomers junior and Big V representative, Rebecca Allemand.  Becca is now 21 years of age and arrives to Warrandyte after nearly 2 years off from the game but with plenty of senior level experience. Becca played for Bulleen in both SYCW and SCW competitions and was recognised early by the Big V with a rising star nomination at SYCW in 2011. Becca also spent some time as part of the junior development squad for the Boomers WNBL side.

“Becca comes to us after a stint out of competitive basketball but has hit the ground running and reminded me straight up of her athleticism and competiveness.  I knew Becca would be a great fit for us, given her desire to run the floor and play an up tempo style of game. I quickly recalled why she was such a tough match up for us at Warrandyte whenever we played against her, at Big V level and through juniors.  She is long and athletic and has pace to burn and is fitting in brilliantly with the group, many of whom are friends of hers outside of basketball” Howard said.

Becca makes a total of 7 players of the 9 that are confirmed for the season who are 21 years of age or under. It is the hope that this core group of young players will represent Venom for many seasons to come at SCW level. Warrandyte expect to be able to announce their full roster before the year’s end.