2017 has been an incredible year for Corpus Christi Basketball Club. During this time, we grew our number of teams from 22 (Winter 2016) to 32 (Winter 2017) and our players numbers grew by a staggering 49%

We continue to promote female participation and in September 2017 we hit 100 female players! This is an incredible effort and with 41% of our players being female against the WBA average of 21%, we are certainly at the forefront of the competition.

Our coaching team has expanding rapidly with the growth of the club and we have been able to invest in the development of our coaches by them attending coaching seminars, coach courses run by Basketball Victoria and our recent series of coach workshops run by Transition Sports. Most of our coaches now hold professional accreditation and we will continue to look at ways of supporting and developing our coaching fraternity. Thanks for all your effort, commitment, time and energy in developing some great players and people at Corpus.

We have continued to strengthen our partnerships with business, allowing us to run some great initiatives, support the growth of the club and continue to develop our professionalism as an organisation. We are excited to be continuing evolve in this space and as we continue to grow we can offer further opportunities to our supporters. Particularly I would like to thank our major supporters; Madok Homes, Werribee Steel, MacKillop College, Melbourne United, Slamstyle and Peak.

This year we sent three teams to the Greater Western Basketball Tournament at Altona. All three made the Grand Final with two victories and one nail biter that we lost in overtime! We will continue to work on bridging the gap between domestic basketball and rep basketball, with opportunities for players to participate in tournaments, commencing with the Eltham/Dandenong Tournament in January.

A staggering 49 Corpus Christi players were selected to play representative basketball this year (about 20% of eligible members)! Kayla Salmons also just got selected in the Vic State squad for the East Coast Challenge in Sydney in January! We also have 4 coaches who are coaching Rep, which includes; Sam Morda, Davin Kroeger, Brad Jewell and Leigh Rowbottom.

We continue to be able to cater for all skills level at Corpus, with our grading helping us to accommodate the most skilled players to beginners and we offer now a minimum of three teams across all age groups/genders allowing us to cater for everyone.

In the community, we participated in the Weerama parade and the Wyndham Youth Basketball Tournament. We continue to develop our relationship with Helping Hoops and in 2018 are going to launch a number of player scholarships which are designed to provide opportunities for disadvantaged individuals to play basketball; receiving a uniform, fees paid, shoes and club gear. We have a number of businesses which have already given commitment to support this great initiative so watch this space.

Next year, Corpus Christi Basketball Club will celebrate our 25^th year since our incorporation, which is massive. We continue to grow, learn and develop and we really appreciate everyone’s support and ongoing commitment. I would encourage everyone to continue to provide us feedback on what we can improve on and what we are doing well, so we can all help to further evolve the club.

And lastly, thank you for showing faith in me as your President over the last 12 months. I have enjoyed the challenges that the role has presented, and the opportunity for us all to work together to promote active lifestyles and opportunity for people to play team sport. I could not have done the role of President for the past 12 months without the support of a great committee and I have a small gift for each member for their efforts. I would encourage you all to get involved in the committee next season as it’s incredibly rewarding to be able to contribute to a great basketball club.

 

Key Statistics

• Ø  Female members 41% and male 59% (WBA Average for female participation is 21%)
• Ø  September 2017, we hit 100 female members
• Ø  Winter 2016 – 198 registered players to Summer 2018 – 295 registered players (49% increase over 2 seasons – Summer 2017 & Winter 2017)
• Ø  Teams have increased from 22 in Winter 2016 to Winter 2017 32 (Summer 2018 -35)