BASKETBALL Victoria is excited to announce the 2023 Victorian Ivor Burge State teams who will compete alongside our Under 20 teams at the Australian Junior Championships in February.
With home court advantage in Geelong, the best Victorian athletes with an intellectual disability will take on the rest of the nation on February 14-19, 2023.
The format of the 2023 Ivor Burge competition will be 3 x 3 for the women’s event, which helps to fall in line with the structure of international events and the men’s competition will be 5 x 5.
“It’s a great time of year when see a new group of Victorian athletes selected to represent our state in the prestigious Ivor Burge Competition at the Australian Junior Championships,” Basketball Victoria’s General Manager – High Performance Grant Wallace said. “We have had great success at this tournament in the past and it is a fantastic community feeling within the teams who all support each other over the week-long event”
TEAMS
Victorian Ivor Burge Men
- Jack Innella
- Matt Farrar
- James Myers
- Jake De La Motte
- Nick Cluning
- Michael Snyders
- Michael Crighton
- Ryan Lethlean
- Fraser Dawber
- James Debetta
Reserves
- Bailey Ohlsen
- Tyler Bergin
Development Players
- Joshua Herft
- Tyler Bergin
Coaching Staff
- Head Coach: Ryan Holloway – Warrandyte
- Assistant Coach: Damian Clarke – BV
- Assistant Coach: Luke Eldridge – BV
- Team Manager: Daniel Fabien – Casey
Victorian Ivor Burge Women
- Montana Haag
- Jordi-Ella Groenewegen
- Kate Leckenby
- Taila Martin
- Jessica McCulloch
- Kaitlin Papworth
- Evie Patterson
- Rachael Potter
- Mia Wilson
- Kate Zonneveld
Coaching Staff:
- Head Coach: Joseph Borg – Coburg
- Assistant Coach: Emily Attard – Coburg
- Assistant Coach: Jackie Gibson – Dandenong
- Team Manager: Kerryn O’Donnell – BV
Emergencies
- Grace Dean
- Celine Papotto
- Danielle Phillips
ABOUT THE IVOR BURGE CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Australian Basketball team for people with an Intellectual Disability made their international debut at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona.
Both Men and Women’s teams competed in the event; the Women won the Gold Medal and the Men finished sixth. It was the first Gold medal won by an Australian National Team in Basketball at any international event.
After such a successful Paralympic campaign the Australian Sports & Recreation Association for People with an Intellectual Disability (AUSRAPID), together with Basketball Australia, created the Ivor Burge Championship.
It was decided to title the Tournament the Ivor Burge Championship as Ivor Burge (a Victorian) is considered one of the founding fathers of Basketball in this country. Although he went to college in Springfield, Massachusetts, after graduating he came back to Australia to promote the game further.
Burge produced the first standardised rulebook for the sport in October 1928 and founded the Victorian Basketball Association in 1931. He continued to help promote Basketball in Victoria through his position with the YMCA until 1940.
In 1941, he became the inaugural Director if Physical Education at the University of Queensland. In 1946 Burge was involved in the writing of the Constitution of Basketball Australia and founded the Queensland Amateur Basketball Association. He was appointed the Associations first President, a position he held until 1954.
In 1992, he was awarded life membership of the Australian Basketball Federation and in 2004 was an inaugural inductee into the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame.
The inaugural Ivor Burge championship was held in Wollongong in 1995 when Victoria won Gold in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions.
