With Benalla Breakers’ senior CBL teams featuring in a doubleheader against Seymour and Wodonga, it was arguably the introduction of a new-look junior representative basketball tournament that brought an explosion of basketball to Benalla.
The Junior Country Basketball League (JCBL), a north-east development competition, will run throughout term one as a reintroduction to representative basketball, after it was identified association tournaments would be hard to run alongside COVID-19 restrictions.
It will see teams from under-12s up to under-18s compete in a home-and-away fixture on Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays.
Benalla's under-12s, under-14s, and under-16s boys and girls teams will all feature in the competition, alongside its under-18 boys' team, with teams playing their first games during the weekend.
Association secretary Michelle Pastuszka said it had been fantastic to see senior and junior games run in tandem with one another.
“I think it's been really good for everyone who belongs to our association to come out and support the other junior teams and the senior teams and vice versa,” she said.
“Quite often we go to a tournament and we don't get the opportunity to watch everyone, but with the setup of junior CBL the kids have been able to come out and watch every other side.”
And on Saturday night, during Benalla's round-four match with Seymour in senior CBL, the association's under-14 players got the opportunity to participate in the Breakers name call, high-fiving players as they ran out on the court.
Pastuszka said this type of integration between the junior and senior programs would set up the future development for its players.
“To get the kids involved, it opens up the communication between them and the older players, who they sit and watch, and they idolise,” she said.
“They think one day that's a pathway for them to continue their journey with basketball.”
With all junior players happy to make their return to the court, Pastuskza, who also coaches the under-14 boys, said round one play had proven to be generally strong.
“I think, for the most part, they've been really competitive,” she said.
“A little bit rusty, but it's been our first weekend of really competitive games.
“But to see them put into practice the plays we learn at practice into game scenarios is really important.”
Pastuszka also thanked the association's volunteers who worked tirelessly to help run the weekend-long event.
“Benalla Basketball Association has worked really hard to facilitate all this, and without all our volunteers, it's difficult to make these things happen. I think they should be congratulated,” she said.
Results from round one of the JCBL season were unavailable at the time of printing.
● Rounds one to four of the JCBL fixture have been released and can be found at playhq.com. Rounds five to eight are expected to be released later in the season.
