The Victorian basketball community band together to help a country basketball association get their young athletes back doing what they love.
October offered unprecedented rain fall across many parts of the east coast of Australia. The floods wreaked havoc across many local government areas, which Rochester (in the north of Victoria), was one of the hardest hit regions. They experienced floods not seen in the area in their history. The small town experienced rapidly rising waters with many residents and businesses losing everything, including the local junior basketball club, The Tigers, their stadium was permanently destroyed by the flood waters.
The whole team at Basketball Victoria watched closely and were devastated to see the amount of destruction on the stadium. Understanding the significance of what this meant to the community and their club, Basketball Victoria’s General Manager for League and Competitions, Greg Jeffers, flew into action with the help of David Huxtable, General Manager - Member and Community Services.
Greg reached out to John ‘JB’ Brenner from Goalrilla and in less the five minutes John had responded, “Just let me know what they want and need, anything to help the kids.”
Goalrilla donated an amazing gift of an in-ground basketball system, plus the cost of the line marking and help with the installation, to complete the generosity, Swish Courts donated indoor court tiles to create a half court for the association, along with extra tiles to create a four-square court and ball handling station.
It was all hands-on deck for the installation, with volunteers from the Rochester Basketball Association, Basketball Victoria and Disaster Relief Australia all pitching in to install the new half court. After a huge day of installation, the local basketball community can now enjoy shooting some hoops on an amazing new court!
Megan Keating, the President of the Rochester Basketball Association, told Jeffers that the kids were waiting anxiously on the sidelines, for the paint to dry, “The kids jumped on the court as soon as they were allowed to and were outside playing late into the night.”
Our thanks to everyone who helped with getting this project up and running for the kids in a short amount of time.
Plans have already been set in motion for a brand new, two court stadium for the town, which will help lift the spirits for the small, tight knit community.
If you have been affected by the Victorian Floods please visit our resources page to see what is available to assist.
