This week the Summer Basketball Season tips off with the Under 14 Boys having played the opening round at 5.30 p.m on Monday. This was followed by the Under 16 Boys, Under 19 Boys and the Men’s and Women’s A Reserve competitions.

Under 10 and 12 Boys matches precede the Men’s B Grade and Men’s and Women’s Social rounds of games on Tuesday.

Wednesday night is SECBL night. The SECBL Men and Women take to the pine in Millicent and Mount Gambier at 7.30 p.m. after the Under 14 and 17 Girls contests.

The weekly competitions round off on Thursday when the Under 10 and 12 Girls step on court.

Plenty of interest has been generated for summer basketball and especially the South East Coast Basketball League. The Women’s competition has maintained its six teams, two from Millicent and four from the Mount Gambier Associations. Unfortunately 2009 Summer premier Roos-Lakers will not feature in this season’s competition, but the other seven will all suit up.

The big news prior to tip off of the League is that of Ben Anderson returning to Bulldogs, his home for many years. Anderson ranks amongst the best of Mount Gambier’s home grown basketball products. This move makes the Bulldogs Men’s side hot favourite even before the first bounce. The thought of Simon Berkefeld, Kurt Russell and Anderson all in the same strip whets the appetite of basketball fans, old and young.   

At this stage the full line-ups of other teams have not been declared, but one can expect yet another season of competitive and high standard basketball on display each Wednesday night through the summer months.

This week Bulldogs Men have the bye. Winter runner-up, Panthers Wizards meets Panthers, who are striving to put together a competitive side after the departure of Kyle Howe-Tipene. Wizards are likely to have maintained their personnel of last season.

The second match at the Stadium is that between Roos and Cougars. Another key player for Roos-Lakers, Kingsley Clark, is suiting up for Roos and Dallas Jeffree is expected to be in the Cougars’ strip, both sides will be looking to juniors to boost their numbers. Saints and Cats play each other in Millcent to complete the first round.

Cats Women go into the summer season as the reigning premier for the first time in SECBL history. They have their first hit out against Saints in Millicent. The Cats girls in their Winter premiership showed that they are able to cover the loss of brilliant guard Kate Seebohm, who is now studying and playing basketball in the USA. Saints showed a vast improvement towards the end of last season with top guard, Lisa Coleman and the experienced Melinda Todd joining the young squad. If they have retained these two, Saints can look for a solid season.

Cougars are expected to be strengthened by the return of Amy Cram, who will give support to the hard working Catherine Larkin. Talented juniors Emily Stafford and Georgia Green have both gained valuable experience at senior level and will take on key roles. Bulldogs meet Cougars after seeing finals action for some seasons. Sara Chapple will again be the team’s “go to” player. She will however be well supported by promising juniors Zoee Cornolo, Morgan Amy and Brianna Falland.

 Roos’ young guns persevered last season and made steady progress and will continue to improve in the coming weeks. Chantelle Weir, Shannon Scheidl and Brooke Hines are three of the “movers and shakers” for Roos. They however face a tough assignment on Wednesday when they take on Panthers, who are hoping several of their summer season players return to action on the pine.           

Anyone interested, junior or senior, in participating in the Basketball Summer competitions are invited to contact the Association or to come to the Stadium next week.

Further information is available on the Basketball Mount Gambier web-site.