Regional Schools Competition forced to spread over 3 venues

In yet another event to suffer from inadequate indoor sports facilities in the Western region the Intermediate and Senior Greater Western Region interschool basketball competitions are today being played across three venues in Ballarat stretching volunteer and referee resources to capacity.

Today in Ballarat we have 22 school teams from Ararat, Colac, Portland, Terang, Horsham, Warrnambool, Camperdown, Stawell and Ballarat vying to represent the regional at the state finals.

These competitions begin at district level, progress to division level, then regional level followed by the State Finals. Ballarat’ s indoor sports facilities’ regularly play host to such events.

For the secondary school program, there are both Boys and Girls competitions.  The Boys competition is played at Year 7, Year 8, Intermediate (Years 9 and 10) and Senior (Years 11 and 12) levels.  The Girls competition is played at Junior (Years 7 and 8), Intermediate (Years 9 and 10) and Senior levels (years 11 and 12). Competition begins at division level, then region level followed by the State Finals.

Basketball Administrator Matt Newton said that “not only would the event be more easily managed but the quality of this event and the experience for the students attending would be that much better if all games were under the one roof”.

Hopefully a fully developed Ballarat Sports & Events Centre will provide such an opportunity in the coming years.

Winners on the day included:

Intermediate Boys: Marion College (Ararat) 38 defeated Emmanuel College 37.

Intermediate Girls: Warrnambool 57 defeated Portland 16.

Senior Boys: Portland 56 defeated Colac 43.

Senior Girls: Emmanuel 35 defeated Ballarat High 32.