PORTLAND will transform into a basketball mecca this weekend with the annual staging of the Portland Junior South West Classic.

Sixty-five teams, mostly from South West Victoria, will contest the tournament with sides coming from Warrnambool, Hamilton, Casterton, Terang, Port Fairy and Koroit, as well as 12 teams representing Portland.

“It will be busy,” Portland Basketball Association board member, Marty Starrick, said.

“We have 400 players registered for the weekend, with games running non-stop through seven courts.”

The two courts at the Portland Basketball Stadium will be the centre of the action, while courts at the Portland Secondary College, Bayview College, Bundarra, as well as at the two Heywood schools, will be used.

“We are running from 8am Saturday through to 9pm, nearly the same on Sunday, and then we also have some games here at the stadium on Friday night.”

Most of the teams are coming off last weekend’s Bendigo Junior Classic which, for many, was their first representative games of the season.

“COVID has pretty much delayed the representative season. Normally we would have played at least Warrnambool and a few other tournaments by now.

“Some teams competed at Shepparton or Hamilton prior to Christmas, and we had 10 teams at Bendigo at the weekend so that was great, fantastic to gets the kids competing.

“The kids are all a bit rusty, but it is great to be back.”

With much of the 2021 domestic season wiped out because of COVID restrictions the teams are a little behind where they would normally be in their development.

“We only had a bit of a season leading up to Christmas, with off and on spectators, so that has put a dent into their preparations in terms of leading into representative basketball.

“I guess that is the same for all competitions, but for us we have a lack of training facilities which is a big thing.

“We have X amount of players and all of them are going to school, so trying to fit them onto courts has been a challenge.

“Some of the other bigger towns, they have bigger facilities that can cater for them a bit better, so that does put us at a bit of a disadvantage.”

For now though the excitement is building for a weekend where teams will play three or four games each, plus the prospect of finals.

 And no tournament will be possible without coaches, team managers, scorers and referees.

“Jake Stevenson is our referee co-ordinator.

“He is a local referee and a referee coach, he is organising all that for us.

“I think there are 38 refs coming from all across this side of Victoria, our local refs as well, and the visiting ones we are able to provide accommodation through one of our sponsors in Quest Apartments.”

Porltand Aluminium has entered into a fifth year as the tournament’s major sponsor.

“We are extremely grateful to all our sponsors, but the generosity of the smelter coming on board again, as major partner, has helped alleviate the pressure on local businesses to sponsor, given the past two years have been tough with COVID.”

Portland Aluminium plant manager Rob Jorgensen said the partnership is a great fit to Portland Aluminium’s community partnership philosophy around contributing to education, opportunity and leadership within the community.

“It also involves a large number of employee and contractor families involved in the program with either their children or grandchildren participating, being on the committee or volunteering as coaches and team managers,” he said.