Chargers join forces for Big V ’23

A QUARTET of players will make their long-awaited returns to the sport of basketball this season after extended breaks away from the game.

Big V basketball returns to the Surf Coast this month as the Chargers welcome five new recruits into its Division Two senior side.

Tara McKenzie, Em Koroneos, Cortney Hollowood and Amy Hooiveld will feature as members of Dan Coles’ roster this season, eager to help put the Surf Coast on the basketball map.

McKenzie, formerly with the Kilsyth Cobras, took time away from the game to focus on her family before her hunger to resume basketball motivated her to join the Torquay-based club.

“I wanted to get back into it to be an example for my three kids who weren’t seeing us doing any sport, but also to show them that someone can have three kids and come back to a sport like this,” she said.

“The goal is to stay healthy, avoid injury, but mainly have fun, that’s the main thing. I’m really looking forward to being a part of a team again.”

Chargers forward Amy Hooiveld has been an on-and-off member of the Torquay Tigers Netball Club for the past decade, having an ankle reconstruction in that time and starting her own family.

After back-to-back summer and winter domestic seasons, and also being a member of the Chargers’ 2022/23 Country Basketball League side, it was a natural next step to make the move to the Big V stage.

“I’m really excited for this season,” she said.

“The game of basketball really just provides me with something for myself to balance my life.

“I have two young kids and I’m really passionate about giving local kids on the Surf Coast an opportunity to play at this level, especially for the young women coming into this side now.”

The big stage is familiar to Koroneos and Hollowood, with both Geelong-based women part of the Geelong Supercats inaugural SEABL (now NBL1) women’s squad in 2011.

“I was going to make a return to basketball with the Bellarine Storm in 2019, but COVID-19 hit and ultimately delayed by return again, and then Dan messaged me asking if I’d be interested in playing again,” Kroneos said.

“It didn’t take me very long to say yes, getting the chance to play with Cortney and Jess Scannell for the first time in 10 years, I couldn’t refuse.”

Community will be at the forefront of Hollowood’s mind, after taking her own break from basketball.

“Torquay is relatively big now, but being a coastal town, we would love to get the community out to our games, and you never know, we could motivate young girls to stay in the sport and hopefully put on a good show,” Holloway concluded.

Surf Coast’s Division 2 Women’s side host its home opener on March 26 at Wurdi Baierr Stadium against RMIT Redbacks.