AFTER a year off from tournaments, junior players from the Hamilton Basketball Association (HBA) will pull on their Hamilton Hurricanes gear and step back on the court next weekend for an action-packed two days of competitive basketball against hundreds of other kids.

The tournament will be contested on December 11 and 12 with games to be played at the Hamilton Indoor Leisure and Aquatic Centre (HILAC), The Hamilton and Alexandra College (THAC) and Monivae College stadiums.

HBA squad coordinator, Pene Baker said the tournament had been a long time coming after last year’s planned event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s just exciting that we can finally get back after so long of not playing, the last tournament we were able to hold wasn’t last year but the year before, so we’ve missed a year,” she said.

Baker said junior development had been made difficult, especially for some of the younger kids with the on and off nature of the past couple seasons.

The youngest crop of juniors missed more basketball than anyone last season as a number of lockdowns came into effect from Thursday nights meaning they missed their regular rounds the following day.

“Some of the little ones (the Under-12s) have only played three games of basketball in their life because of all the restrictions and lockdowns that happened,” Baker said.

“They have been thrown in the deep end a bit … but this is the biggest development group we’ve had in years.

“It’s great that we got big numbers to the tryouts, I think everyone is keen to get out of the house and back into it.”

The weekend will see a massive number of teams compete in the and with no restrictions on spectators, Baker said she expected a huge turnout.

“We have 77 teams for our tournament in the Under-12s to Under-18s, we have teams from Warrnambool, Horsham, Portland, Port Fairy, Koroit, Maryborough, Casterton and Terang,” she said.

“It will be the biggest numbers we’ve seen I think … all the kids are excited to be competing again.”

HBA president, Barry Hawker said the tournament would come under the event policy and would be open to all spectators to come along providing they showed proof of their COVID-19 double vaccination.

“The venues, HILAC, THAC and Monivae will force people to be double vaccinated to enter, there is capacity limits, but we won’t get to those,” he said.

“Kids under the age of 12 and two months are still able to play, because there is a two-month window once they turn 12 to go and get double vaccinated.

“There will be COVID marshals at each of the venues during the tournament, someone will be there, we are just working through who those people will be at the moment.”

Hawker said based on the number of team entries, this was shaping up to be the biggest turnout in 4-5 years for the 2021 Hamilton Junior Basketball Tournament.

“I think it’s a culmination of things (contributing to the huge turnout), changing our date to a later date to give more teams an opportunity to select their teams and come to the Hamilton tournament was one and with lots of other tournaments cancelled, this is really the first one back,” he said.

“Pene and the other tournament committee members have worked hard to contact other associations and get so many teams to come down.

“It will be a big flow on for Hamilton, the spectators, kids, supporters, whether they are staying for accommodation or going out and grabbing a coffee, it will be really good.”

He credited the tournament committee for the great work they had done in planning the event under difficult circumstances.

“A compliment to the tournament committee, Pene Baker has organised all things squad related, and Deb Templeton has done a lot of work in the background, as well as the others involved,” he said.

“They’ve done a great job organising it in the moving and unforeseen circumstances, hopefully now we can sit back and enjoy the tournament.”

Emily Iredell is one of the many players in the Under-12 category who is determined to show off the skills she had learnt during the time off.

The 10-year-old is a natural defender, but has been working on other aspects of her game to give her the edge over her opponents.

“It’s going to be great because I can show off what I’ve improved on and it’s great to find new teammates … practice has been going good,” she said.

“I’m more of a defensive player (but) we are a strong team, we are very close too, so I think we will do pretty good.”

Jack Jennings and Bailey Baker will be competing in the Under-18s and couldn’t wait to test themselves against some of the best players around.

“I think we are pretty well prepared (as a team), but these tournaments are just leading into championships, and it will be good to get a bit of practice in,” Jennings said.

“It’ll be interesting to see how they (other teams) go and what they have learnt at training in the time off.”

Baker expected it to be a very competitive weekend and knew winning against other teams would take his sides’ best effort.

“We haven’t played for a while so it will be good to play with the boys … it will be a good competition playing all the different teams from around here.,” he said.

Under-12 Girls (A)

Emily Iredell, Yolanda O’Sullivan, Grace O’Sullivan, Elsie Brown, Ava Ryan, Ava Kinnealy, Samira Muhktar, Willow Colliton.

Under-12 Girls (B)

Evie Templeton, Leni Robertson, Evie Milne, Pippa Richards, Hannah Logan, Olivia Baulch, Ayla Khawli, Tatum Bell, Indi Ewing.

Under-12 Boys (A)

Manaia Bremner, Beau Brian, Harry Manley, Ben Cameron, Zanda Ewing, Lucas Dumesny, Jack McCulloch, Oliver Winnell.

Under-12 Boys (B)

Knox Picken, Jake Malseed, Cooper Kearney, Baxter Walkenhorst, Harry Button, Carter Rhook, Connor Crawford, Henry Wear, Dru Mayfield, Harrison Foley, Charles Prentice.

Under-14 Girls

Molly Sevior, Charlize Cooper, Saskia Gould, Holly Rook, Ruby Cleaver, Lily Raymond, Maddox Ryan, Lucy Jennings, Ruby Spong (emergency), Shannon Masho (emergency).

Under-14 Boys (A)

Angus Knight, Charlie Baker, George Clark, Harvey Miller, Jobe Dunn, Kareem Muhktar, Ned Hintum, Riley Iredell, Darcy Milne, Oscar Elliott.

Under-14 Boys (B)

Darcy Milne, Jay Casey, Oscar Elliott, Oscar Templeton, Ned Cush, Jono Stewart, Sam O’Sullivan, Hugh Prentice.

Under-16 Girls

Grace Cleaver, Maddison Cotton, Phoebe Dunn, Stella Grinham, Scarlett Hintum, Reet Kaur, Skye Kissell, Bridget Mailes.

Under-16 Boys (A)

Austin Mayfield, Hayden Millard, Daniel Spillman, Oscar Hausler, Matthew Calvert, Joshua Sevior, Hugh Fitzgerald, Zac Elliott.

Under-16 Boys (B)

Tyson Sparrow, Jack Khawli, Isaiah Baulch, Tom O’Sullivan, Xavier White, Karatau Keightley, Ontaj Gould.

Under-18 Boys

Deacon White, Bailey Cooper, Josh Miller, Josh Hallam, Jack Jennings, Bailey Baker, Tom Calvert, Izack Mayfield, Archie Hintum (emergency).