Four junior players from the Broadmeadows Basketball Association have been selected for Basketball Victoria’s State Development Program.
The program is the first step for players who want to represent Victoria or join an Australian junior representative team. The program will be run at Broadmeadows for athletes from Melbourne’s north-west.
Broadmeadows Basketball Association’s Anastasia Gak, Sarah Portlock, Scarlett Robinson and Zachary Thomas said they were excited to begin the training sessions.
Sarah described the tryout process as daunting.
“When we arrived there I was definitely nervous, because I didn’t know what was involved,” she said.
“I was also very excited because it is just a great opportunity to meet other girls [with] the same passion for basketball, and develop my basketball skills.
“I’m excited to have the opportunity to improve my basketball.”
Anastasia said she was surprised when she found out she had been selected for the program.
“I had to read the letter a couple of times for it to sink in.”
Zachary said he set himself the goal of being selected for the program after the pandemic stopped the 2020 program.
“I worked really hard to keep myself fit and to keep my skills up,” Zachary said.
“Getting into the program is an incredible opportunity… I get to work with some of the best basketball coaches in Victoria.
“Basketball and education go together for me, so it would be great if basketball could help to open up the possibility of studying at a college in the USA.”
Scarlett also hopes the program could lead to playing overseas.
“I hope to one day play college basketball in America and then see where it takes me from there,” she said.
Michaela Meade
