SANTA came early for the Ballarat Miners this year with two well-earned gifts on the same day.<\/p>\n
Sam Short will be back on deck for 2019 inaugural season of the reincarnated South East Australian Basketball League, and the team has locked in Hotondo Homes Ballarat as a naming rights partner.<\/p>\n
Short said looking forward to returning to play for his home team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity to come back home and play in front of my home crowd again is something I\u2019ve always wanted to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to come back and give back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 195cm guard grew up in the region and played his junior basketball in the local league.<\/p>\n
This summer season he\u2019s been plying his trade with NBL side Melbourne United and will be bringing what he\u2019s learned back with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to coming back to Ballarat and trying to show that I\u2019ve gotten better from last season,\u201d Short said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning to be an athlete 24\/7 has its challenges but [it\u2019s] really just bettering myself as a player in all facets of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Short said he was also keen to get onto the court at the Miners new stadium in the middle of next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously a major draw card for me coming back is getting a chance to play in that new stadium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw what Bendigo did with their centre, I think ours is going to be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we can pack it out a couple of times and get a great atmosphere in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the resigning of Short, the Miners second big announcement last week was that Hotondo Homes Ballarat is now the team\u2019s naming rights partner until 2021.<\/p>\n
That means the senior men\u2019s elite team will be known as the Hotondo Homes Ballarat Miners.<\/p>\n
Hotondo Homes Ballarat director, Adrian Willingham said the approach of the company fitted well with the Ballarat Basketball Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a very family-oriented business, and always have been, we thought why don\u2019t we mix up with Ballarat Basketball and the Miners because they are a family club and basketball seems to be very welcoming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to a great partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Miners will hit the court sporting the Hotondo mark on their singlets, and Short anchoring the defence sometime in March with the season schedule set to be released soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SANTA came early for the Ballarat Miners this year with two well-earned gifts on the same day. Sam Short will be back on deck for 2019 inaugural season of the reincarnated South East Australian Basketball League, and the team has locked in Hotondo Homes Ballarat as a naming rights partner. Short said looking forward to […]<\/p>\n