Echuca-Moama Basketball Association held its representative season launch on Wednesday evening, September 25, and announced its sides for the upcoming 2024-25 season in both junior and senior competitions.
The season launch was held just days before the annual Echuca tournament, which will be played by 125 teams from around Victoria from Friday, September 27, to Sunday, September 29.
The tournament will be played across 10 courts in Echuca, Rochester and Kyabram, with the latter two locations being used as support on Saturday and Sunday.
Echuca-Moama Basketball Association president Lisa Baker was excited about the upcoming season, and the season launch was aimed at getting people ready for the annual tournament this weekend.
“We haven’t done a season launch in a few years, but we want to get people up and excited about our annual tournament over the weekend,” she said.
“We are first up on the country basketball calendar, we just want to get people ready to go because we have so many new families this year, which is excellent.
“We want to give newcomers a bit of a snapshot of what the weekend and the rest of the season will look like.”
Baker also mentioned the senior Pirates’ side, which will begin its Country Basketball League season next Saturday, October 5, against Mansfield at 6pm.
The Pirates have moved divisions from East to West this year and are excited about the challenge of facing new teams.
“Our senior pirates are looking solid in the lead-up to the season; we have a solid squad of 12 with a few new faces, so that’s exciting,” she said.
“We have gone to a different division this year because we are in the middle of the divisions; last year, we were in the west, and now we are in the east.
“We were in that division a few years ago, and it was a great competition, so we are looking forward to it; it’s a short season, so they’ll have to be on the ball from the word go.”
Overall, Baker and everyone at Echuca-Moama Basketball Association are ready for the representative season and are excited about the state of basketball in the area.
“The talent and numbers that we have this year is thrilling; we have so many teams because there is just too much talent, which is awesome,” she said.
“Basketball is booming and very popular, so we are in a great spot for the season ahead.”