RedCity Roar president says “bring it on” as club bounces into new league

Bring it on! A Redlands team will be in a senior division one state basketball league for the first time and the club’s president says they are motivated for the challenge.

RedCity Roar GM Peter Pollock with President Jason Fiddes. Picture: AAP/Richard Waugh

REDLANDS basketball will compete in a senior state league for the first time in history.

The area’s new association, RedCity Roar which replaced the old Redlands PCYC Pride at the end of last year and is based at Capalaba, was recently named to have a men’s and women’s team to compete in the new Queensland State League Division 1 competition.

RedCity’s introduction into the new league comes after the former Redlands team made the grand final of the old Southern Basketball League division two competition last year.

Their results in 2019 meant even if the league had not changed, RedCity would have moved up to SBL division one for the upcoming season.

RedCity Roar president Jason Fiddes said it was exciting news for the club and believed having a team in the QSL would help create a pathway for juniors aiming to play at the highest level.

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“There’s a lot of excitement around RedCity because of this,” he said.

“We’re not naive, we know it’s going to be a big challenge, we’re going to invest into both programs.

“There’s some pretty cool rules for QSL that we haven’t been able to do in recent years, so we think we’re going to be able to put two pretty competitive teams on the court but it’s going to be a learning stage as well.”

Fiddes said the news was a big boost in trying to achieve their aim of reaching 1000 members by the end of the year.

“Obviously we’re putting a big focus on our junior programs and building that for years to come but having this QSL program now will help us with that as well and retention too,” he said.

“We also think with having this QSL option now there maybe some prodigal sons and daughters coming back as well and that will be great but we have a strategic plan in place to build our association.”

The QSL competition was created after the state’s top tier league, the Queensland Basketball League, was changed to the NBL1 North after a partnership was formed between Basketball Queensland and the National Basketball League.

As a result of the changes several teams, including the Gladstone Port City Power and the North Gold Coast Seahawks, made the decision to not feature in the NBL1 North meaning teams in Brisbane and the Redlands will travel to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and as far as Bundaberg and Gladstone to play.

Both Ian Hibberd and Aaron White will return as coaches of the men’s and women’s teams.

The QSL will start in late April.