Gympie Basketball Association have outgrown hiring courts

Constant cancellation and rescheduling of games and competing for limited court space is causing big headaches for local basketball teams as the Gympie Times continues to campaign to Save Our Sport.

The Gympie Basketball Association has needed their own stadium since their numbers started growing five years ago.

Now, with the Covid migration causing Gympie’s population to swell, it’s even more pressing.

The club is among many the Gympie Times is advocating for as part of its Save Our Sport campaign, launched in the wake of devastating floods and amid $1million in local funding cuts.

The Basketball Association has been hiring courts from the Pavilion and three different schools in order to play.

The Pavilion was already shared with other sport clubs and community groups alongside the Basketball Association.

Since the Gympie Civic Centre was inundated in the 2022 floods, hiring the Pavilion has become even more of a challenging task.

Club president Sonia MacKenzie said on Friday the Gympie sporting community needed to work with the council to address this issue.

“We’re constrained by sporting venues across all sports,” she said.

It has come to the point where teams are at capacity and have had to reject keen players until their next season.

The club frequently has to reschedule their games and training sessions to accommodate venue changes.

Men’s representative coach and senior referee co-ordinator Matthew Lally said the club’s high school senior boys team had to cancel their end of season game last year due to these changes.

The boys had school and work commitments so they couldn’t make it to the rescheduled game.

This had become a common occurrence within the club, particularly towards the end of the season in November.

Parents plan their week and work schedule around taking their children to training, only to forfeit once the games are rescheduled.

Kids often leave once they reach a certain skill level, as the club can’t provide for them with a home base.

Parent and committee member Amanda Dibsdale-Godwin drives her son down to Noosa twice a week in addition to the club’s training at Gympie.

“It’s frustrating because there’s so much passion and commitment from kids, committee and parents,” she said.

Amanda Dibsdale-Godwin and her son Benjamin at the Gympie Grandfinal on December 21, 2021.

Ms MacKenzie said children learned so much from sport and should be supported.

She said it taught them about volunteer work, teamwork, respecting their coaches and most of all, instilled them with pride that came with being part of the club and town.

“The depths of what kids learn is so much more,” she said.

“It gives kids something to do, and an outlet to adults.”

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Originally published as Gympie Basketball Association have outgrown hiring courts