Ballarat Statistician Aiming for Commonwealth Games

Emma Henstridge of Ballarat has this week been selected to be on the Basketball Australia Statistician Bench for Tuesday night’s Australian Boomers farewell match at Hisense Area, before the team heads to Rio for the Olympic Games.

Henstridge is just 22 years old and has been working on the Ballarat Rush and GMHBA statistician bench for seven years.

Basketball Ballarat’s Statistician co-ordinator Jason Crosbie said “Emma is now one of our more experienced statisticians and often takes on the head statistician role.”

Henstridge has done numerous National Basketball League and Women’s National Basketball League games in the past three years both in Ballarat and in Melbourne. Henstridge also had the opportunity to work on the statistician bench when the Australian Opals played Japan at the MARS®MINERDOME in 2015.

Henstridge was selected for the Australian Boomers game after spending two days in Kilysth at the under 16 Australian Junior Championships where she impressed all with her quality of work.

Basketball statisticians have the best seat in the house on game day as they sit as close to the court as possible and watch the game intently. A statistician’s job is to record every score, foul, turnover and stop in play so spectators not at the game can follow on their phones or computers.

Henstridge is working towards getting a seat on the statistician bench for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Crosbie is full of praise “Emma has worked hard to be where she is and deserves to be on the stats bench on Tuesday night. I also know that she will continue to get better and I see no reason why she won’t be at the Commonwealth Games in 2018”.

Basketball Ballarat is always looking for more statisticians for SEABL and Big V Youth League home games. It is a great way for lovers of basketball to stay involved and get to the top level basketball without having to have the hand-eye coordination or fitness level of players.

Also vying for appointment at for the Boomers farewell match was Kira Irving. Irving is a level three score table official and made it to the last 15 applications. Irving can be found on the score table each week at SEABL and Big V Youth League games as well as on the score table at Melbourne United home games.

For more information on the how to be a basketball statistician or on Emma’s progress please contact Elite Teams Administrator Melissa Thomas via 5330 7604 or Melissa.Thomas@ballaratbasketball.com