Preparations for the Echuca Pirates’ next CBL season will commence mid-year.
Echuca Moama Basketball Association is bracing for another year of strong interest in its winter season, with plenty of action set to take place across various age groups.
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EMBA’s offerings this winter will start from the ages five to seven for boys and girls with its Aussie Hoops program, providing purely skill-based training with no gameplay.
The under-10 program will also be held for boys and girls as a step up from Aussie Hoops, coupling skills training with modified games.
Both programs are designed to provide younger players with a strong foundation should they continue playing into under-12s, the age group when players start competing in the junior domestic seasons.
The current summer domestic season is reaching its climax, with semi-finals taking place this week and grand finals next week.
EMBA will have a month-long break after the summer finals before starting back up with the winter domestic season, running from May to September for boys in under-12, 14, 16 and 18 and girls in under-12, 14 and 16.
EMBA is currently nearing the conclusion of its summer domestic season.
“Obviously, our winter season is a little bit smaller than our summer due to other sports being played, but lately, we've pretty much nearly matched the participants, which is really exciting,” EMBA president Lisa Baker said.
“Our increase in men's teams has been very significant over the summer, so hopefully get that sort of interest again, and then obviously getting into squad preparations which the committee will start doing around May to get in preparation for the next season.”
Apart of those preparations will be try-outs at the end of June for the Echuca Pirates’ next season.
Currently, the Echuca Junior Pirates are featuring at the Junior Country Championships, with the under-14 boys and girls teams playing in Ballarat from April 11-13, and the under-12 boys and girls in Bendigo a week later from April 17-19.
Another junior tournament is Basketball Victoria’s Country Jamboree, which will once again be hosted by Echuca in September, bringing together 120 under-12 boys and girls from across country Victoria to face off against each other.
The Country Jamboree brings together the best under-12 players from across country Victoria.
A week after the jamboree is the annual Echuca Moama Basketball Tournament, which features more age groups, from under-12 through to under-18.
EMBA invites associations from Victoria and NSW to attend and enter teams across three days, this year held from September 26-28.
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