Going for gold at pathway camp

MORE than two-hundred bright-futured basketballers will converge on Selkirk Stadium next week as part of a regular pathway event with Basketball Victoria.

The organisation’s annual Gold Nugget Camp will this year see 275 under 14 and 15 hoop hitters showcase their skills on the court with a boys’ session on Wednesday followed by girls on Thursday.

Basketball Victoria’s high-performance head coach for country men Nathan Cooper-Brown will lead the sessions and said the camp is the organisation’s flagship pathway event.

“This has been running for, I think, close to 30 years,” he said. “We bring in our under 14s who work on their game as part of our future development program across the state.

“We pick our tournament teams from this camp. For under 14s we have two teams that’ll go away to the Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup in Albury.

“Then we have two under 14s and two under 15s teams that will go into the Southern Cross Challenge in Melbourne. For the under 15s it’s their first opportunity to represent their state in the nationals.

“The time spent in this future development program and those academies can really springboard athletes because there’s significant jumps made to under 15s and under 16s.”

Between 10 and 12 players will be chosen from the group of participants to take part in the upcoming initiatives, with this year’s intake featuring 150 male and 130 female athletes.

Of the under 14s basketballers taking part in the event, four boys and seven girls are local.

With the event held predominantly in Ballarat, Mr Cooper-Brown said it showcases the region as a prime basketball location.

“As far as I’ve been in the program, it’s been at Ballarat so at least the last five years. It’s definitely synonymous with Ballarat,” he said.

“The city’s an important part of country Victoria basketball. It’s got a large community that supports the game. We’ve had a lot of coaches, athletes, volunteers come out of that region.”