The Midweek and Weekend dates of play are almost finalised (these may change if our gym bookings are forced to move for a higher priority sporting event – which is quite unlikely now). UPDATE 26 JANUARY 2017 - MIDWEEK NOW PLAYING JUNE 7 (as per feedback).

We would like to thank everyone for their responses in the club survey – there are still some items we are exploring the feasibility of. Here are some things we are instituting as a result of your responses:

• Less Breaks in the season for weekend grades (which results in an overall shorter season). BU15, GU17 and MU17 will play less than 18 weeks (including finals) now.

• Referee Development will be more visible in terms of what courses and development opportunities are available. Carol Bathurst will be running an initial session on Thursday 16 February 2017 for secondary school students, to cover rules and mechanics. To register interest in this please email her at referees@canterburybasketball.co.nz. We will make sure to widely publicise other courses and development opportunities as well, as soon as details are finalised.

• Glory League was very well received. Development of this platform is ongoing, with feedback we pass on playing an integral part in where their resources are placed. We are investigating the feasibility of all games to be scored on tablets, whether a camera is present or not. (Custom Tags is currently in development, which has been widely requested by coaches).

• Earlier Draws- We will attempt to do this but please be aware that this will depend in part on the amount of coach/player clashes across multiple grades and referee availability.

• Communication of Draws – It was apparent that not all interested players received these from their club admin, or knew that they were posted on the front page of our website. We will encourage any interested people to have their email address added to the email list, and be sent draw updates (as well as continuing to have these published on the CBA website as well). Click here to have your email address added to the mailing list.

• Playoffs – 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 whenever possible, as per feedback.

• Finals Day – preference to keep this as a celebration day for as many grades as possible.

• Female Basketball – In an effort to try and increase the number of teams playing basketball we are instituting a few changes in 2017 (which will be reviewed annually):
• o   WU20 grade is becoming WU23 – Rationale is to reduce amount of players leaving the sport once they turn 20, as well as making this a true club grade
• o   Allow WU23 players to also play WD1 OR W Prem – Rationale is to illuminate pathway for players into whichever grade is more suitable for them, with expectation WD1 would see an increase in team entries as a secondary benefit (from five teams each of the last few seasons)
• o   GU17 grade remains without changes – We do wish to reintroduce the U15 (and U20) grade in the future, but do not feel the player base is there yet to be able to do this without damaging what we already have.

• Bench Duty – this is likely to follow the same format as this year (a team is responsible for full bench before or after playing).

• Website – we have begun initial planning and development of a new website – based in part on http://basketballvictoria.com.au/ and hope to have this online early next year.

• YouTube – We have just set up a channel now, where we will be posting our highlight videos. Click here to see our initial videos and subscribe.