AS BASKETBALL heads into its off-season, Korumburra Basketball Association is looking ahead and hoping for a three-peat in the women’s Country Basketball League.
Korumburra Basketball Association has had a lot to celebrate over the years and its reputation as a starting point for some of the state’s best continues to grow.
“One of our main successes is our women’s program,” the association’s director of coaching Bill Jeffs said.
“It’s been running here for a long, long time. Our women’s team won the VJBL way back when. We’ve had Sharon Deacon (nee Amiet) come through here and become the vice-captain of the Australian Women’s Team in the World Championships and the Olympics. We had Wendy Smith become a member of the Victorian State Team in the Australian National Championships in 1981.
“When I first came up here in 1974, there was a women’s domestic competition and out of that, some of those girls ended up being selected. We have had a huge history of success.”
Most recently, the Country Basketball League (CBL) squad enjoyed premiership wins in 2022 and 2023.
A squad of girls coached by CBL player Chloe Hogg has also had a fantastic run in the Junior Country Champ tournaments since 2022.
“We won our first Division 1 as U16s in 2022. It was really unexpected, especially from a small town. We were the underdogs going up against teams like Bendigo and Ballarat. It was really good to see the kids gel together – they really showed their team spirit, which is what helped them get across the line,” Chloe said.
“The following year, those kids were pretty much all bottom age U18s and we won Division 1.
“Now they are playing with me in CBL. It’s a really interesting experience to have kids I coached come up and play alongside me and win a championship together.”
This year, Korumburra Basketball Association saw its U12 girls become Division 3 champs, and its U14s boys Division 2 champs.
The U16 girls were also the U16 champs in Division 2 in 2023.
The association is continuing to put a lot of effort into its young squads and is seeing rewards through selections to state teams.
Most notably, Phillip Island’s Joel Robinson was selected for the U17 Australian squad.
Joel represented Korumburra in VJBL in the U14 and U16 sides.
Korumburra Basketball Association has been well represented at a national level in recent years.
Representatives of the association – both players and coaches – have been selected to play in the National Championships on the Victoria Country State Teams in the last three years.
The association supports its players going through the Future Development/State Development Program.
Korumburra players have been selected in teams to participate in high performance pathway programs including State Combine, Southern Cross Cup Tou, Golden Nugget trials, Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup (ACJBC), and Country Metro Challenge.
Chloe has been coaching for eight years and is now involved in the National Performance Program.
She has enjoyed watching local players excel.
“It’s like watching your own kids grow up – it’s such a surreal feeling,” she said.
“You get to know these kids really well – not just from a basketball perspective, but on a personal level – and it’s awesome to see them compete at their best. It’s really nice to see the kids’ progress and to watch all that hard work pay off.”
The association has also received accolades at the Basketball Victoria Country Awards in recent years.
It was named Small Association of the Year, and also received 2022 Male Coach of the Year, Female Coach of the Year and the Social Media Award.
Although in the off-season now, the association is looking forward to its 39th Korumburra Basketball Association Tournament to be held in October.
This will come off the back of a highly successful 2023, which attracted 139 teams, and 1522 registered players, coaches and team managers.
The association’s own membership numbers are health with 346 registered junior domestic players, 100 senior domestic players, 125 junior representatives and 66 VJBL players.
Korumburra Basketball Association is also looking forward to its upcoming rep season, another domestic season in August, Aussie Hoops and CBL.
The club is run by volunteers and is able to offer so many programs and opportunities for juniors due to the help of recreation centre manager Adam Smith.