Milestone year

Horsham Amateur Basketball Association members are preparing to celebrate 70 years of basketball in the regional city.

As the association looks to celebrate the milestone in December, and its summer competition ramps up – including the men’s and women’s Hornets teams running out on the court for their first game of the new Country Basketball League season – members of the association have recalled their own memories and experiences.

Among them was life member Owen Hughan, who said it was important to remember the hard work of the association’s founding members and those who played at halls before the stadium opened in 1974.

“The sacrifice those people gave was quite incredible. They are the people we are really benefitting from,” he said.

“They came down and umpired for nothing; worked in the canteens for nothing.”

Hughan, who has served in a variety of roles from junior coach to president, said he moved to Horsham in 1986 and soon became involved with the association.

“I always wanted to go to the country and I was coaching in the NBL at the time,” he said.

“When I came here, I went to have a look at a game and I thought I was back in the ’50s.

“I ended up coach of one of the girls’ teams, because none of the boys’ teams were in a very high situation.

“They got into the Civil League and then we had a game every week. We would play at home and then we played virtually throughout Victoria.”

Hughan received an Order of Australia Medal in 2012 for services to basketball. He is also a life member of Basketball Victoria.

He said it was the ‘tremendous expense’ that it took to enter league competitions and other initiatives such as tours of American players to Horsham, which allowed the association to grow.

He said the association had gone on to produce a number of high-quality athletes, all of whom he coached.

“Athletically, the best kid was Mitch Creek and Aaron Bruce wasn’t far behind him,” he said.

“Our last person to come through here was Chloe Bibby and she is now in the Australian team.

“Of course, Shaun Bruce and Mitch are captains of their two teams in the NBL now, which is a credit to the program and the type of people we had.”

President Matthew Grace said the association prided itself on having a strong junior program to be able to develop many successful athletes.

“We start right at the mini-hornets level. There, they learn the basics and at our most recent one we had 70 kids,” he said.

“In a couple of years, they will move on to under-10s, under-12s and through to junior representative basketball.

“Now we are seeing the kids of dads who have played for the Hornets and it’s great to have those familiar faces around.”

The association has also had strong domestic leagues and offers junior domestic competitions for boys and girls from under-10s through to under-14s, boys under-16 and under-18 competitions and a combined senior girls’ competition.

For adults, there is a senior domestic competition for men and a domestic women’s competition is emerging.