SUCCESSFUL FINALS CAMPAIGN JUNE 2009

Congratulations to all our teams for their wonderful performances during the recent finals series of the 2009 Basketball Competition.

It is hard to remember the last time our Club has had such a successful finals campaign winning 8 premierships and being runner-up in a further 2 (one was against our other Exies Acmy team).

Our “Super Sunday” started in brilliant fashion with our U/11 A Grade Girls and Boys both victorious. The girls got away to a great start and with lots of enthusiastic parents, aunties and uncles and grandparents cheering them on managed a comfortable win against Celtic by … points. U/11 Boys coach Sharyn Canny did an exception job managing to rotate 9 boys and keep her team in front all day to record a …. point win against a tough Saints combination.

A highlight of the day was our two U/12 A Grade girl’s teams who made it through to the final. Both teams played at very high standard and the sportsmanship during and after the game was a credit to all players. Coaches Sandra Burton, Donald Bengtson and Kristy Jose have done an exceptional job with this age group and were justifiably rewarded with both teams making the final.

Not to be outdone by the girls, coach Sharyn Canny got the double with her U/12 B Boys dominating in their final winning by points against Saints. Exies Acmy got away to a great start and the result was never really in doubt A number of our boys played in both the U/11 and U/12 finals which puts us in a great position for the rest of the year. Well done to all!!
Our success continued in the U/14 A Grade girls. Coached by Sandra Burton, we had a convincing win against Celtic by points. With the girls getting away to a great start, all players got good court time. Sandra’s team looked incredibly well drilled and deserved their premiership and top of the ladder finish.

Our 16 Girls overcome a hurdle early with state representative Jane Douglass a late withdrawal due to injury. However this did not deter a much focussed group who clawed their way to victory. As the match progressed, the girl’s confidence soared and they ran out comfortable victors against Celtic by points.

In one of the “classics” of the day our U/16 B boys took victory by a point against Celtic. Coach Craig Dummett watched breathlessly as his son Sean went to the line with 15 seconds remaining and 1point down. Sean calmly proceeded to make both baskets and give his side a 1 point victory. The celebration’s of these boys was by far the most exuberant of all Exies Acmy teams during the weekend!!!

Our U/18 A girls came up against a bigger opponent in Celtic. Although we started well the baskets were just not dropping and Celtic got away to a sizeable lead in the first half. Coach Rod Whittle kept faith with his charges and the game slowly came back within reach. However the clock was against us and although we outscored our opposition in the second half it was not enough and we went down by 14 points. With all players either bottom age 18’s or from our U/16 side it was a remarkable achievement to make the final and the team will no doubt benefit from that experience in the future.

The last game of the evening saw our U/18 B Girls give coach Kristy Jose her second premiership for the day with a win in overtime by 5 points. This team has played consistently all game and Kristy was extremely proud of their finish to the season.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all players, parents, coaches and our very hard working committee for your contributions during the season. A Club can only function if they have the support of many people and it was very obvious on the weekend with a large number of our players and families that stayed at the Minerdome to support all of our sides that were competing.

To our players that did not make finals – work hard, listen to your coaches and your turn will come.

Enjoy the break !!