The Wyndham Basketball Association are thrilled to share with you the signing of Amanda Paschal to the Championship Women’s team for the 2022 season.

Amanda hails from Brooklyn, N.Y, and started her collegiate career at Junior College – Gulf Coast State, where she helped the Commodores to the 2016 National Junior College Athletic Association National Championship, 2016 Panhandle Conference Championship and 2016 Florida College System Activities Association/NJCAA State Championship.

After a successful start to her career, Amanda then transferred to one of the nation’s biggest programs, the University of Kentucky. Amanda carved out a successful career with the University of Kentucky, where she worked her way in to the core group and main rotation, and also become a leader within the program.

Championship Women’s Head Coach Gerard Hillier is thrilled to secure the signature of Amanda for the 2022 season “We knew instantly that Amanda was the perfect fit for our program, it was obvious right away that Amanda was a hardworking and genuine person who would add great value to our program via her work ethic and personality”.

Hillier added that her ability to play multiple positions gave the roster flexibility for the season ahead “Amanda can easily play the 1, 2 or even 3 spot in our system, which will give our roster a range of different looks throughout the season, Amanda is a very experienced combo guard and can fill whatever role is needed to win on any given night”.

Amanda is elated with the opportunity to join the Wyndham Basketball Association family “ever since I’ve been in contact with the club, they’ve been nothing but friendly, they show love, invited me in as if I was family and I am grateful for the opportunity”.

In addition to his playing role, Amanda, along with the other WBA imports will be considerable contributors to the WBA through coaching in various programs and camps.  We look forwards to our community having the opportunity to get to know Amanda and to learn more about our game from her.

Amanda will arrive in Australia in February.

The WBA has decided that junior domestic competitions this Saturday (November 6th) will be “Welcome Back Round”, where the games will be played according to the released fixture (including Manor Lakes as the second venue), however the results will not be collated for inclusion in ladders nor used for grading purposes.

The late confirmation of vaccination requirements and operating rules which came through from Basketball Victoria and WLS had major impact on providing adequate notice to clubs, teams and families as well as increased risk of operational issues occurring. The WBA were concerned that the game results could be unfair given so many variables.

For example, player registrations are still coming through and therefore player points allocations cannot be finished, domestic clubs are still trying to recruit players and finalise teams (we know there are teams not currently entered), some competitions currently only have 2 teams, and there are major concerns of traffic flow and car parking at Eagle stadium. Another week will allow more time to address these issues.

Please note that people entering and exiting Eagle stadium for COVID vaccinations will be using separate doors to patrons attending for basketball games and programs.

Manor Lakes Parking
Manor Lakes has a new entry for the Stadium for those that haven’t been there this year. The school is also locked off with a court only entrance to the 2 courts/venue spaces. You won’t be able to park on the street and walk through the school you’ll need to park at the carpark near the football oval. Please notify your players of the new entrance.

Getting to the stadium:
Stadium car park is located off Howqua way behind the football oval.
Entrance to the courts is found along the black fence, where the green AstroTurf starts is the entrance to the stadium area.

Regards,
WBA Management

The WBA is excited to be able to share with you all the most recent update in relation to our return to sport.  We thank all of you for waiting patiently for the update, we have wanted to ensure that we had all of the required information available, and now we’re ready to pass it all on.

We are thrilled to be able to announce not one, but TWO new coaching appointments for the Victoria University Wyndham Senior Program.

The WBA welcomes Lucas Allen to the position of Victoria University Big V Championship Men – Head Coach. Coach Allen comes to Wyndham with a wealth of knowledge and experience, having coached in the league for over 10 years, including a championship along the way, Coach Allen knows the league inside out and has a proven track record of success.

“Coach Allen is a huge addition to our program, when you combine his overwhelming experience of working with elite juniors via the Basketball Victoria Country pathway, and also his ever growing experiences with the South East Melbourne Phoenix where he’s their Technical Assistant Coach, we know we have secured a highly credentialed coach to drive our program forward” said Gerard Hillier, WBA Player & Coach Development Manager.

“Coach Allen is a highly driven and focused Coach; he will absolutely bring a high level of professionalism to our program which will not only greatly assist the senior men’s program, but will also filter down to our aspiring young athletes in our junior program.” Added Hillier.

The WBA also welcomes home Aaron Bensted, who is our newly appointed Victoria University Big V Youth League Men – Head Coach. Coach Bensted returns home to Wyndham after spending the past 4yrs with the Melbourne Tigers, where he worked extensively with their u18 to Youth League programs.

Coach Bensted brings a large amount of experience to Wyndham in the Youth League divisions, having served as Assistant Coach under Australian great, Andrew Gaze, for a number of seasons. Coach Bensted also has a great understanding of the Wyndham program, having played all his junior career here at Wyndham, and also coached a number of season with our program in the past.

“Coach Bensted is a really enthusiastic young Coach, and a real student of the game. I have no doubt that Coach Bensted will build a new and exciting environment for our Youth League members to thrive within” said Gerard Hillier, WBA Player & Coach Development Manager.

The WBA also welcome’s back Gerard Hillier as the Victoria University Big V Championship Women – Head Coach, along with Corey Michailidis as the Victoria University Youth League Women – Head Coach.

As part of the Wyndham Way Vision 2024, the WBA’s coaching lead roles will be undergoing a restructure, leading to a sole coaching lead with assistants helping this position.

The restructure means our 2020/21 coaching leads Grant Duca (Boys) and Corey Michialidis (Girls) will be finishing up in these role, though, thankfully, neither will be lost to our association with both Grant and Corey set to continue in other coaching roles across the association.

The WBA wanted to take this opportunity to thank both Grant and Corey for their hard work and dedication across multiple seasons. Both have been pivotal in the development of our players, coaches and the program overall.

Player and Coach Development Manager Gerard Hillier thanked both Grant and Corey for their work in the coaching lead roles.

“Both Grant and Corey and well known and liked for their work within our VJBL program and we can’t thank them enough for the time and expertise they have put into their roles,” Gerard said.

“The leadership positions within our VJBL program are crucial to the overall success of the program, which is why I took a lot of time to consider the best structure moving forward and believe we have landed with it in the Wyndham Way Vision 2024.”

“We’ll be advertising the single Coaching Lead role soon and the start date will obviously be COVID restriction dependent,” Gerard explained.

Wyndham Basketball is thrilled to confirm Billy Akalo is our new Basketball Development Officer.

Many of our community will be familiar with Billy as a VJBL coach and he has been in the role on an interim basis for a few months. He has done such a good job we had no choice but to hire him permanently!

As an experienced VJBL coach, Big V assistant and having worked at Westgate Basketball and as a board member at domestic club level, Billy has a fantastic basketball resume and brings a wealth of knowledge to the role.

A crucial role for the WBA, the Basketball Development Officer is charged with coordinating and running our behemoth Aussie Hoops program, plus our domestic-level development programs. He also leads our interactions and engagement with local schools, ensuring all kids know basketball has a home here in Wyndham and is a great sport to play.

Billy said he had enjoyed his time at the WBA so far and couldn’t wait to get to get back out on court and once again encouraging new participants to our game.

“Fundamentally I just love the sport, so selling it to new participants comes very naturally to me,” Billy said.

“The WBA has done a wonderful job building up the Aussie Hoops program to become one of the biggest in the country and I’m honoured to have the chance to continue its success.”

WBA General Manager Craig Armstead said Billy had proven his capacity while in the interim role.

“While we have been delighted with Billy’s performance in the role on an interim basis, we wanted to follow good governance procedures and undertake a thorough recruitment process. At the end of that process Billy was the standout candidate, which, when added to his specific experience in this space was too good to ignore. His style and skills have fitted in well here at Wyndham and I’m looking forward to see him continue to grow into the role on a permanent basis.”

While we are off court, Billy has produced several skills videos for Aussie Hoops and Domestic level athletes you can CLICK HERE TO SEE.

Gender Inclusion Sub-Committee  

In 2020 the WBA engaged Victoria University to undertake research and prepare a report on Gender Inclusion in domestic and representative basketball at Wyndham. Following this the WBA Executive established a sub-committee on this topic. The sub-committee has decided its first priority is to address the hostile culture that exists and develop a behavioural campaign to promote awareness of both positive and unwanted negative behaviour. The sub-committee believe it is vital to gather real life Wyndham Basketball experiences that can be used as part of the campaign. We are therefore reaching out to members of the basketball community to share their experiences of positive and negative behaviour that will help our creative writers develop stories for the campaign.

The format for providing input is to partake in an interviewed with one of our creative writers.

To get involved, or let us know about your experience, contact us by sending an email  info@wyndhambasketball.com with the subject “Gender Inclusion sub-committee”

Gender Inclusion Program

Through the support of WBA and Victoria University, Sophie Brynes has developed a Gender Inclusion Program that aims to create, implement, and evaluate gender equitable strategies within our WBA affiliated domestic clubs.

To conduct this project, she seeks assistance from domestic coaches to volunteer their time and be a part of this action-based change. Particularly, aiming for one coach per domestic club to volunteer enabling the program to cover the entire WBA domestic competition.

Volunteers will be required to attend six collaborative group sessions over a span of 4 months, involving creating evidence-based strategies to be implemented and evaluated. This is a wonderful opportunity to work together and promote our domestic clubs and Wyndham Basketball Association as inclusive spaces for women and girls.

To get involved or find out more please email your interest to sophie.byrnes@students.vu.edu.au and include your name and your Domestic Club.

Wyndham Basketball Association’s Coaching & Program Coordinator, Jackie Gibson, is leading a group to develop female basketball coaches.

REGISTER BY CLICKING HERE

Not only does Jackie work here at WBA, but she’s also our U18.1B’s head coach, an assistant coach for our Champ Men Big V Basketball team and part of Basketball Australia’s emerging coaches program.

In other words – she knows what she’s talking about! 

The program is free and open to any current or aspiring female coach of domestic or representative team. It’s a chance to learn, network and improve in a fun and safe environment. 

There’s still time to register and we are running sessions every second fortnight but because we know everyone is busy,  there is no obligation to come to every session – you can drop in and out as your schedule allows!

We’re thrilled to announce Victoria University (VU) is officially a major partner of the Wyndham Basketball Association.

As the biggest community sports organisation in Wyndham, the WBA hosts more than 4600 players each week for male and female, and junior and senior teams in all abilities, offering pathways that are affordable, accessible and inclusive.

With participation numbers booming 36% since 2015, the WBA provides much needed and valued programs in Melbourne’s west, one of the fastest growing regions in Australia.

The partnership will see the VU logo incorporated into a new ‘Big V’ uniform design for players, and provide opportunities for VU researchers to expand on projects that promote social inclusion through sport.

WBA General Manager Craig Armstead says the collaboration showcases a shared commitment by both partners to growing and strengthening the communities of Melbourne’s west.

The objectives and goals of VU’s Sports Strategy 2019-2023 align perfectly with the Wyndham Basketball Association Strategic Plan. There are multiple opportunities that we cannot wait to develop with VU, both on- and off-court.

In addition to branding opportunities, VU researchers will follow up a joint evaluation of the WBA’s Gender Inclusion Strategy and Practices in 2020 with further projects.

“WBA’s engagement in research and evidence-based understanding of basketball in the western suburbs has strengthened its relationship with VU. WBA is an exemplar organisation that recognises the importance of its role in the Wyndham community,” said lead researcher on the Change Makers Project, Associate Professor Brent McDonald.

New research will explore sustainable solutions to promote basketball to more girls and women, and empower migrants and refugees through sport participation via an Australian-Government-funded project, Change Makers.