Next generation set to benefit from WNBL visit

Meet and greets and coaching clinics could be on the cards when the best female basketballers in the country come to town.

Queensland North Junior Championships in Townsville. U12's Townsville Flames Vs Mackay Meteorettes. Mackay's Skye Vaughan and Flames Sofia Blanco-Boyle wrestle over the ball. Picture: Alix Sweeney

MACKAY Basketball is enjoying its most successful junior representative season in more than a decade.

Now the impending arrival of the WNBL and its gamut of elite female basketballers has the association well-placed to continue its upwards trajectory.

After today’s announcement that Mackay would host four WNBL teams and eight fixtures as part of a north Queensland hub, Mackay Basketball CEO Jason Borg hopes to strike while the iron is hot and keep the positive momentum going.

It comes after an incredibly successful month for Mackay Basketball’s junior representative programs, which included state championship-winning successes for the U12 and U16 Meteorettes.

“We’re super excited to have that level of talent across so many teams venturing into our city and displaying the women’s game at the highest level here in Mackay,” Borg said.

“And the fact we’re coming off such a successful representative season for our girls – two gold medals, something we haven’t done since 2009 – it’s something that just adds the cherry on the top to piggyback on that success.”

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Basketball faces an uphill battle in Queensland to keep girls involved in the sport through their teens. Borg said the arrival of the WNBL would also mean great things for the future of girls basketball in the region.

“Queensland, not just Mackay, really struggles with the female membership numbers particularly once they get to 14, 15 years of age. So for them to see this level of talent, where they can go and the pathways they can take, we think is super exciting,” he said.

In a further boost to the junior program, Borg said Mackay Basketball was in talks with Basketball Australia and the WNBL to offer clinics and other coaching sessions to local players.

“They tell me that there will be some chances for the girls to come along to a clinic-type sessions with some of the elite athletes from the WNBL,” Borg said.

“Just for the kids to be around them is super exciting. If I was a kid and the NBL or WNBL was in town I would have been so jacked up. It would have been incredible.”

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