Bendigo Junior Basketball Classic

Ballarat’s Junior Elite Miners & Rush teams hit the road this weekend for the 38th annual Bendigo Skin, Ski & Surf Junior Basketball Classic.

Seventeen (17) teams from U/12 to U/18 in both boys and girls will contest the 3 day event from January 23rd to 25th.

In the U/12 section both the boys and girls sections have three teams representing Ballarat.

In the U/14, U/16 and U/18 age groups there will be two squads in each age group in both the male and female sections except for the 18 Boys who will only have one squad.

The tournament will give coaches a chance to see how their players are shaping up for the 2016 Country Championships and for the home and away Victorian Junior Basketball League Championship to be played every Friday night from February through to August.

Manager, Athlete and Coach Development said “this is a wonderful tournament for our program, teams get the opportunity to get together as a unit after the long break, re-focus on our values and standards, get competitive games executing our style of play, and allows players and coaches the occasion to get back on track before the season kicks back in. We love the Bendigo tourney as it provides both regional and metropolitan competition in a fun but spirited environment”

“Our U16 Navy girls group are a team to keep an eye on, having already qualified for Victorian Championship in the VJBL, they return three girls from the recent Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup, Sophie Molan, Isabella Hill, and Georgia Amoore.”

“Our U14 Navy girls are also a team on the rise, although struggling with qualification they are stacked with talent, including ACJBC representatives Annie Collins, Talia Hurdsfield, Brydi Hutchinson, Demi Thompson, plus Southern Cross Challenge representative Magdalene Kratochvil”.

“With Coach Lucas Bourke, and athletes Laura Taylor and Taylah Wynne fresh off impressive performances at ACJBC, our U18 girls (who have also already qualified for VC) will be looking to turn heads”, Cooper Brown added.

The Classic has 226 teams involved across 32 associations with the majority of teams being from Victoria with some teams from South Australia.

The Classic runs across 16 courts at 7 venues around Bendigo.