Wyndham Basketball invites all 1st and 2nd team players to our Wyndham Pro Day Camp.

The Wyndham Pro Day Camp will be conducted in a high-performance environment that will expose our players to a wide range of elite level skill set and concept development.  Wyndham Basketball’s Coaching Lead, Lucas Allen will be running the Pro Day Camp.  Lucas has vast experience in coaching, including but not limited to;

Current Coaching Staff at South East Melbourne Phoenix

Championship winning Head Coach at BigV

8 x Australian Junior Championships

12+ years coaching in Basketball Victoria High Performance Pathways

Coached in China, USA and New Zealand

Combining with Lucas will be a guest coach (NBL/WNBL/National Level), the athletes attending are sure to receive unrivalled coaching and tuition.

The camp will be structured in the exact same manner as the Australian Representative Camps, which will involve the following:

1. Speed, agility, and endurance testing
2. Physical testing, height, wingspan, and flexibility testing (no weight testing or anything along those lines)
3. Footwork development workshops
4. Shooting & finishing workshops
5. Ball handling workshops
6. 3v3 concept development & scrimmage

The Wyndham Pro Day Camp is designed to give players the opportunity to work on the finer details within our game and develop in areas that have been proven to best assist players in taking the next step in their basketball journey, all whilst being mentored and coached by elite level coaches.

Wyndham Pro Day Camp – U12’s & U14’s 
Date: Saturday 23^rd January
Time: 9.00am to 3.00pm (multiple mini breaks throughout the day)
Venue: Eagle Stadium
Cost: $80.00 per player
Bring: Basketball, Wyndham Training Uniform, Water Bottle, Foam Roller, LUNCH & SNACKS, towel

Wyndham Pro Day Camp – U16’s & U18’s 
Date: Sunday 24^th January
Time: 9.00am to 3.00pm (multiple mini breaks throughout the day)
Venue: Eagle Stadium
Cost: $80.00 per player

Bring: Basketball, Wyndham Training Uniform, Water Bottle, Foam Roller, LUNCH & SNACKS, towel

REGISTER HERE

There will be a wide range of other Wyndham Basketball Association holiday camps and programs for your child to attend over the holiday period, which they are most welcome to attend in addition to the above mentioned, however the Wyndham Pro Day Camp is only open to 1st & 2nd team players.

Note: If you are in a 3rd or 4th team, we will be holding a special day for the athletes in those teams later in 2022, so no player within the Wyndham Junior Rep Program will miss out.

If you have any questions, please contact Wyndham Coaching Lead, Lucas Allen – lucas.allen@wyndhambasketball.com

The up and coming Wyndham 3×3 tryouts will see teams selected to attend the 2022 3×3 Big Hustle National Qualifiers, with the winners of each age group then moving on to the National Championships.

This tryout and team selection process is the first major step in our Wyndham Way Vision – 3×3 Focus, which will see the Wyndham Basketball Association promote the 3×3 pathway more within our community, and also have a stronger presence on the 3×3 National scene.

For those that are new to the 3×3 world, it is a fast, relentless, physical and exciting format, with shorter and more action filled games. For those that do have experience with 3×3, we most certainly want to see you at tryouts.

There are two additional and major benefits of playing 3×3, the first being that it also develops and greatly assists your normal 5on5 basketball, and the second reason being it also provides you an entirely new pathway in basketball, so it’s a win/win situation.

Although these tryouts will only see one team per age group/per gender selected, we will be hosting more and more 3×3 events as 2022 rolls on, but for the meantime, roll up your sleeves and get along to the tryouts.

Tryout information:

Date: Friday 14th of January

Time: 1:30pm – 3:00pm – u12s and u14s

Time: 3:30pm – 5:00pm – u16s and u18s

Location: Eagle Stadium

Ages:  DUE TO THE EARLY DATE OF NATIONALS THE AGE CUT OFF DATE IS 23rd of JANUARY 2022

12’s & under – athletes who are 12 years or younger on 23^rd Jan 2022

14’s & under – athletes who are 14 years or younger on 23^rd  Jan 2022

16’s & under – athletes who are 16 years or younger on 23^rd Jan 2022

18’s & under – athletes who are 18 years or younger on 23^rd Jan 2022

OPEN – athletes who are 17 years or older on 23^rd Jan 2022

Register here

Athletes who are successful at the tryouts will attend the below event:

Date: 22^nd & 23^rd Jan 2022

Time: 8:30am team check in on the Saturday – 5pm finish on the Sunday

Location: Ballarat Sports Events Centre – 989 Norman St, Wendouree VIC 3355

Cost:  $50 per athlete (4 players maximum)

Note: All selected athletes will also need to purchase a 3×3 Big Hustle uniform ($25), which can be purchased online and collected at the tournament during check in (link will be provided to successful athletes).

If you have any further questions, please contact Wyndham Coaching Lead, Lucas Allen – lucas.allen@wyndhambasketball.com

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.