Coasters ready to break into a new season

By Aiden Box

BASKETBALL is once again taking off in Wonthaggi and surrounding areas, with domestic, representative and Country Basketball League (CBL) each entering new seasons.

The Wonthaggi Amateur Basketball Association (WABA) will again field both a men’s and a women’s CBL side and look to be competitive in the region’s highest and most competitive basketball competition. 

The proud Wonthaggi club has undergone a few changes in the offseason, following another successful season in the CBL last summer, when their men finished sixth and their women fifth. 

Both teams welcome new head coaches, with the men to be led by Andrew Mortimore and the women now under the guidance of Cath Garnham. 

Fresh into their new roles at the helm, Andrew and Cathy spoke to the Sentinel-Times last week ahead of the CBL’s opening round. 

“It’s what I’m used to, I’m much more comfortable with the seniors role, I’ve coached up in New South Wales in youth league men’s, NBL1 and played in that league for about 20 years as well,” Mortimore said. 

“I’m feeling much more at home with the older boys.”

“I took on the role since they’re a good bunch of girls, they’ve had a bit of recent success and I’m hoping to get that next group of women coming through and getting them involved,” said Garnham.

Neither coach is a stranger to the role or the club itself for that matter, the Garnham name is entrenched in the WABA and Cathy herself has coached many successful representative teams of all ages, she also has three supremely talented children who have and will represent the club with flying colours.

As for Andrew, he and his family moved to the area during the pandemic and has since invested his time in the junior portion of the WABA, coaching his 11-year-old son in his junior representative team, he will now take on the big job and coach his other son Will. 

Will is touted to be a massive drawcard to the Coasters games with a wealth of experience and height, standing 6”10. 

“He’s been in boarding school in Sydney for the last three years, playing NBL1 in NSW, he’s just turned 18 and won the NSW Youth League State Championship, which was a big win for his club in Maitland,” Mortimore said. 

Will Mortimore will look to gel early with his new teammates, one of whom Jett Garnham, who was a top ten scorer in the competition last season and has recently played Youth League basketball at the Dandenong Basketball Club, Jett is also one of Cath’s sons, and will again line up alongside his older brother Jenson, in what shapes to be Wonthaggi’s best and most exciting line up yet. 

“What excites me about the boys is that they’ve got a bit of mongrel about them, which is great, they’re young, fit, aggressive and our strength will be to use that intensity on the defensive end to create a bit of pressure,” Mortimore said. 

“We’ve got a bit of height coming in this year with Will, so the combination of speed, aggression and height should see us have a bit of extra oomph compared to last year.”

With a new coach and a true power forward/center coming into an already potent machine, the Wonny’ men are primed to make a finals run, and have their sights set on doing so. 

“We sat down at our first session and as a team we targeted a top three finish so we can have a great advantage going into finals, so that’s where we’re aiming this year,” Mortimore said. 

On the women’s side of the tape, their new leader is pumped to get to work with her fresh and young squad. 

“We’re travelling well, we’ve got a few junior girls coming through the junior program, which is good, it shows that our pathways are all working, we’ve got a good mix,” said Garnham. 

“I think we have that blend of good youth and experienced heads as well, our older lot, that are only in their early 20s, they have that experience of winning the title two seasons ago and playing at a high level themselves as juniors,

“So having that mix now and passing that information and skills onto the junior group and still having that chance to make finals and potentially win again makes this season really exciting.”

Building off of this buzz, the 2021/22 champions will once again steel themselves for another finals tilt, or at least their coach certainly hopes so. 

“We always hope to win, we know we’ve got to get time into the junior ones as well, so a lot of development but we’d be disappointed if we didn’t make finals,” she said. 

All the preseason hype will finally come to an end this Saturday at Korumburra Indoor Recreation Centre, in a blockbuster rivalry double header. 

The women will tip things off at 6pm in a clash of the champions, before the men hit the floor as one of the best local sporting rivalries adds another chapter, both coaches had their say on their huge season openers.

“The boys have said this is one they really want, all eyes are on Korumburra for us, it’s a really important one, the boys are focused, and I’ll get them ready on the day, we’ll be ready to play,” Mortimore said.

“We’re hoping to get out and run, we’ve got some speed, they’re the reigning champions, they’ve got great juniors and women’s sides historically, they’ll be super tough, we’re going in as underdogs,” said Garnham.

“But we’ll try our best and take it to them and hopefully come away with the win.”

Just to build even more excitement, in 2023/24 it will be easier than ever to watch the Coasters CBL stars strut their stuff out on their home floor, with five massive home games, all on Sundays!

This is a move which was requested by WABA president Michael Bell and his team, as a way of making the CBL action more accessible to families and locals in the area, Michael spoke of this change to the Sentinel-Times last week.

“It’s really the perfect substitute for senior footy, it’s the highest level we have around the region and its so easy to get to, we really want to build that family atmosphere,” he said.

Wonthaggi’s huge home opener double header tips off with the women at 12pm this Sunday at the Bass Coast Community Stadium, with the men to follow at 2pm, both against Southern Peninsula.

Both incoming coaches threw their support behind the change to Sunday afternoon home dates. 

“I think particularly for local junior basketball players in the area it’s a really good opportunity to come and see kids that have come through the same club and got to a point where they perform,” said Mortimore.

“We’ve got Jenson, Jett and Dom who are all really solid local juniors who are going to be competing in high levels of basketball for a long time, so I think for juniors to come and see how far they can get to as basketballers in Wonthaggi it’s a really good opportunity to come and support.”

“Come down because you can see some great local talent, some people they’ve potentially grown up with our know around the area and see some role models for men and women,” said Garnham.

“It’s great for those younger people to see that there is quality high-level sport in their region that they can be part of, either through playing or just by coming and watching and we want to do our town - Wonthaggi and surrounds proud.”

The club is hungry for more success this summer as it continues to grow at all levels.

“Numbers for the club overall are great, domestic is still growing, we’ve had to move to adding a Friday night to the schedule to fit everything in, rep’ is going well too, we just hosted heaps of practice games for the local clubs over the weekend,” said Bell. 

Overall, the WABA is set for another bumper season of basketball, and it promises to be an unmissable one for the area’s locals, who are all welcome to come get their piece of the action.