Hoop dreams: Geelong United scores deal with Hoop City

GEELONG United basketball will grow the talents of its players both now and in the future through a just-signed three-year partnership with Hoop City.

The national chain of basketball training facilities will also be the naming rights sponsor for what will be the Hoop City Geelong United Supercats and the Hoop City Geelong United Stingrays in the 2022 season.

Geelong United chief executive officer Mark Neeld said the benefits of the partnership would be seen right throughout the basketball association’s Victorian Junior Basketball League (VJBL) program, which covers players in teams from Under 12s through Under 20s, as well as senior representative basketball.

There will be special training sessions at Hoop City for Geelong United players embedded in the VJBL.

“Each VJBL team will get a number of training sessions at Hoop City, exclusive to them, so we’re really excited about that,” Mr Neeld said.

From next year, there will also be 10 Hoop City Academy scholarship places offered to a male and female player from each of Geelong United’s VJBL teams, with exclusive training sessions at Hoop City each week.

From the VJBL, Geelong United players can move into the senior representative pathway, which comprises Under 23 men’s and women’s teams in the Youth League, the Stingrays men’s and women’s open age teams in the Big V, and the Supercats in NBL1’s South division.

“It’s the first real partnership that will cover the entire pathways program – everybody in it will feel some benefit from it,” Mr Neeld said.

“People can choose which part of the (Hoop City) program they can afford, time-wise and monetary-wise, but this partnership (with Geelong United) covers the whole program.”

Geelong United’s male teams have a strong connection to top-flight NBL side Melbourne United, and Melbourne United player and Olympic bronze medallist Chris Goulding is one of the owners of Hoop City.

“He’s the quality of basketball person that Geelong United players will have access to, which is great for our local community,” Mr Neeld said.

Hoop City’s Geelong location at 190 Torquay Road, Grovedale, is under construction and is expected to open very soon.

Geelong United’s basketball competitions first shut down on March 13, 2020.

Mr Neeld said when the association reopened on November 7 after the end of the latest lockdown, they had been shut for 366 days where they could otherwise have been hosting basketball.

“It’s been a long time but community basketball is back up and running; there’s approximately 800 teams in our community comp playing on a weekly basis.

“We’ve certainly hit the ground running and there’s lots of enthusiasm.

“I must also put out a big thank you to the basketball community for the way they’ve come back into the sport. They’ve been so understanding of the different rules that have been used; they’ve been great, which has made everything so much more enjoyable for all of us.”