The Lions love being a smaller club. We think that with 2 Coaching Directors, supported by our junior panel, focussing on a small number of athletes we can help ensure the individual attention and focus that our players and teams deserve. This maximises the development of each and every player and coach. We have allied with STARplex to ensure our athletes have access to excellent domestic competitions and Academy programs rather than setup our own. Our growth is targeted and controlled, as we don’t want to grow beyond our capacity and compete with the local domestic competitions in the Barossa, STARplex and Parafield Gardens, we are focussed on the BEST OF THE BEST in these areas AND NOT THE REST. This enables us to be focussed and efficient in developing players for District level and beyond.

However, in 2009 we were too small to ensure our success and development as a club.

In the 2009 – 2010 season we focussed on helping our athletes understand basketball pathways and having them set goals to achieve on those pathways. We now have record numbers of kids participating in basketball high performance pathways. We also have more coaches than ever before with experience themselves in these pathways.

In 2010 – 2011 we focussed on having teams in every single age group with Div 1 representation and Div 2 representation. The below table demonstrates our success in achieving this.

2011 – 2012 this year we are focussing on developing more depth across the club, seeing more competitive div 2 teams and our div 3 teams being promoted to higher divisions over summer. This Summer season our Div 2 teams have made a jump in wins and losses across just about every age group/sex.

In addition the Lions have been the fastest growing District club in South Australia over the past 3 years.

During those three years an unprecedented number of Lions have made SASI, DNSP high performance squads, as well as SA Country and Metro state squads. In addition, in the past 2 yrs we have 7 athletes play overseas at US Colleges, US prep school or in Europe.

We think club growth normally tends to be leading indicator of oncourt performance and we are expecting this Winter season to be our most successful season on the court so far. Here is how the district clubs have grown since Winter 2009:

	%age growth
Central Districts	90.91%
Southern Tigers	19.35%
Sturt	10.53%
Forestville Eagles	6.67%
South Adelaide	6.25%
Norwood	-6.67%
West Adelaide	-7.14%
North Adelaide	-7.69%
Western Magic	-10.00%
Eastern Mavericks	-12.50%
Woodville	-28.00%

One critical gap in the club in 2009 was the fact that we didn’t have div 1 and/or 2 teams in many age groups. We currently have Div 1 and 2 teams in every single age group from u12s to u18s (except U12 div 1 girls and U18 Div 2 girls).

	2009
	U12		U14		U16		U18
	Div 1	Div 2	Div 1	Div 2	Div 1	Div 2	Div 1	Div 2
Boys
Girls
	2012
	U12		U14		U16		U18
	Div 1	Div 2	Div 1	Div 2	Div 1	Div 2	Div 1	Div 2
Boys
Girls

A big congratulations to ALL athletes, their support teams (parents and family), coaching staff, committee members, team managers, STARplex staff, DNSP coaches etc. that have been an integral part of the Lions' success. Let’s make Winter season 2012 our most successful one yet!!