This weekend sees Hawks host the last of our Home games at the WA Basketball Centre as the Grand Final is BWA’s gig!
As the SBL Administrator and Games Night operator, it’s time to thank all those wonderful Hawks who make my job easy.
Where to begin:

Game Night Set-Up: Karl Hombergen (fellow Board member) and Keith Anthony are at every Home game to help with set-up/game night duties and pack-up. Karl quietly sets up all the sponsorship signage, ensures our Video operators have their equipment in place and looks after our Sponsors during the game, as well as acting as ‘bouncer “for the referees! 

Keith is busily ensuring both teams have full water containers, ice for injuries, drinks for after-match andfilling eskies with water and soft drinks for the score bench, sponsors, announcer and other volunteers.  Keith is also a great barracker on the edge of the court! Thank you J

Door:  What would we do without Chrissy? She is the face of the Hawks at all Home games and is the first contact for all clubs on game night. She tirelessly does her job with a smile on her face. Chrissy is a pleasure to work with.

Score bench:  We featured our score bench in last week’s program, who without (along with our players), our games would not go ahead. They sit from about 5.30 pm to 10.00 pm and concentrate on all the varying roles a score bench has to deal with – and ALL VOLUNTEERS. Thank you to Margaret, Marian, Shazza, Marcia, Eleanor, Peta, Tania, Rosemary, Sam, Mardy, Karen & any others I may have missed – a BIG thank you.

Statisticians: Tammy & Brock sit and call & input live stats at all our Home games and in Tammy’s case a lot of the Away games! This job enables supporters at home or unable to come to the games to follow the games live on the net via the live stats. They (along with the score-bench) have the best seat in the house. Thanks Tammy & Brock and to the other statisticians who Tammy has been able to ‘lure’ to the Hawks to help out when Brock is shining on the footy field!

Announcer: What can I say about Paul? Everyone knows Paul as he has been announcing at our games for a number of years. He is passionate about basketball and the Hawks so much so he is now a Board Member and is our Junior Competition Referee Co-ordinator. He ensures music is pounding on game night (even if the acoustics at the WABC aren’t that friendly!), much of which I have never heard. He won’t play my playlist but who listens to Buble anyway? Paul ‘plays’ the game as he announces and gets really involved which we love. Thank you Paul – job well done J

Video: Some of you may be unaware that at each Home game we have to video and supply copies of the DVD to the home/away/and referees at the conclusion of the game. We have Finn Hombergen in charge of this task, along with his band of helpers and ‘fill-ins’ namely Crispy; Sam et al! The half-time interlude makes our coaches’ laugh – can’t answer for the opposition of the refs though! Thanks guys – love you work.

Floor Sweepers: Hawks have the best in the SBL and I know I am biased but it’s TRUE. Each week our junior Hawks – Sebastian Komatsu & Adrian (AJ) Nobensi along with Callum & Ross Kimberley, sit at either end of the goals and mop up the sweat left by our players. Their job is a little easier during the Women’s games but come the Men’s – they are up and down at a furious pace. It’s priceless to see Seb’s face when Ben ‘borrows’ the ‘floor towel’ to wipe his hands! We have had fill-ins when there have been injuries or illness, and we thank them too.

Photographers:  Clare Chappell & Sebastian Komatsu have constantly supplied the Club photos each week to use on our website and Facebook page. They also decorate the Hawks office!  Nobu Fukumoto and AJ Nobensi have also contributed throughout the year. Each week I look forward to seeing these photos. Thanks to you all.

Mike Bussell:  The stalwart of the Hawks – Mike is around at all Home games to back me up when the horn runs out of gas or the sirens start blaring for no reason or any other ‘job’ I need doing at short notice – Thanks Buss!

Venues West Staff: Whilst remaining in the background, it’s always comforting to know we have the backup of the Venue Officers from VW. Special thanks to Steve who is generally on duty at our Hawks home games. He is readily available if the shot clocks die or security is needed in the crowd (not Hawks fans of course), or if the 91.3 turns up unannounced  to broadcast the game, not to mention bringing a meal to me whilst I burn WSBL dvds between games! Also to Mardy as she too understands game night and is very helpful. Thanks to you all.

Lani Dennis:  As you are all aware, Lani married Shawn in May and they headed to Townsville for SD to take on the head coaching role at the Crocs. We were all very sad to see Lani leave as Lani was like our 6^th man on the court with her cheering and enthusiastic approach to our Hawks games. Along with her awesome barracking, Lani prepared our Game night programs and send around our Hawks Weekly News. We thought we had lost all this once Lani departed Perth, but true to her word she has continued to prepare our programs and E-News each week from Townsville. So she has been ‘hawking’ whilst ‘croccing’! We thank you for continuing to do this Lani even whilst not in the State. Our programs are also the best in the league and we hope this can continue in 2014. THANKS LD!

Our Club relies upon the support of our Sponsors and in 2013 we welcomed back Kris from Austurban Homes; Mal from Teamworks; Travis from Outer Bounds Photography & Pracys, along with our new sponsors; Snap Subiaco; Mosmans Restaurant; Kiewit; Midland Brick and Abbey Beach Escape Holiday House. We thank-you for your contributions in 2013 and look forward to continuing this association in 2014.

In conclusion, it has been an enjoyable 2013 for our SBL teams and in particular for our Men who we are willing on to win these two semi-finals and advance to the Grand Final.

GO HAWKS!

Jenny Purser

Perry Lakes Hawks

Game Night Operations