Rochester's under-18 boys and girls sides both made the grand final of the Darryl Twitt Ford divison two and three junior tournament. Photos: Supplied.
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It has been a busy season of representative competition for Rochester Basketball Association’s juniors so far, with some momentous victories and some Victorian Junior Basketball League debuts.
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Nine junior representative teams from Rochester hit the court at the Darryl Twitt Ford divisons two and three junior tournament on November 9 and 10, with four teams making the grand finals in their divisions.
Both of Rochester’s under-18 division three boys and girls division two sides made the grand final, with the boys winning 68-42 over Griffith Demons while the girls were runners-up, falling short to Warragul Warriors 5-20.
Meanwhile, the under-12 division three boys won their competition, beating Benalla Breakers 34-27, and the under-12 girls were runners-up, with Korumburra beating them 34-5 in the grand final.
Rochester Basketball Association’s Meagan Keating highlighted the club’s joy in seeing all the junior teams taking the court in the Greater Shepparton competition.
“We were excited to have nine teams participate in the Shepparton tournament and we were lucky enough to have those nine teams play in Kyabram, especially on the Saturday,” she said.
“There was a real club feel being able to watch your clubmates and teammates play for Rochester, which was pretty special.
“Our players were all able to show their skills and their abilities.
“You could see that all the teams had been training and developing well and we now look forward to the Bendigo tournament at the end of February.”
Keating also emphasised the association’s excitement seeing the girls’ sides playing because of the desire and hard work to increase participation numbers for girls basketball in the area.
“A special one for us was our under-12 and under-18 girls who had increased confidence in their skills and abilities and to be able to put them on court and get themselves to a grand final was wonderful to see,” she said.
Rochester’s under-12 boys won their grand final while the under-12 girls were runners-up in their division.
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“We have reached over 200 participants for this season, which is amazing. We have put a lot of time and energy into finding more girls to play basketball and we have seen a growth to three sections for females only at junior, intermediate and senior level in our domestic competition.
“It’s been pretty special for us to get to this point to offer that many grades for girls in basketball.
“We have worked hard for to fill our representative teams and what we have seen is we are getting players back to our domestic competition as well and the depth of our competition increases.”
On top of Rochester’s success at the tournament, some of its juniors have also taken individual leaps into representative teams around the region.
Young guns Chance Powles and Harvey Keating have made the jump into the Victorian Junior Basketball league, where they are currently in grading pools as part of the Shepparton Gators’ under-18 girls and the Bendigo Braves’ under-18 boys.
Powles has played one game so far against Diamond Valley girls two, where she put up seven points.
Both players are still participating in the Rochester Basketball Association’s domestic competitions, which will finish with a grand final night on Wednesday, December 18
Meagan Keating reflected on the achievements of the two as they begin their representative journeys and gear up for the season ahead.
“Both Harvey and Chance are Rochester residents, they both started their basketball careers with Rochester and have moved through to some basketball pathways, including Basketball Victoria’s Regional Academy program,” she said
“We are only up to round two of grading, so it’ll be a long season ahead for the both of them.
“We have had a history of players going through representative basketball, going to Echuca Pirates and Vic Country and some of them have also come back to Rochester, which is lovely to see.”
