Shepparton Gators head coach Josh Waight recently took his talents to the national stage, leading the Victoria Country under-16 representative team in the Australian Junior Basketball Championships.
Heading to Perth for the championships, which ran from July 3 to July 7, Waight inspired the Country side to a 4-1 record and a second-placed finish in Pool B, before it was knocked out in a quarter-final by hosts Western Australia.
The championships are aimed at developing the next generation of Australian basketballers, and Waight said it was an honour to be involved and represent regional Victoria.
“It was a great experience, it’s something I was able to learn so much from and I was honoured to represent my state and lead the talented players we’ve got here in regional Victoria,” Waight said.
“The boys played with great pride in every game and left everything out on the court, and as a coach that’s all I can ask.
“All in all it was a fantastic opportunity and something I was very pleased to be part of.”
Coaching one of 12 teams competing in the hotly contested tournament, Waight said the games were fierce, with his team unfortunate to find itself out of the medals.
“Overall I thought the boys did a really good job; we had one bad pool game (against South Australia Metro), which probably hurt us a little, where we turned the ball over too much — and that resulted in us finishing second,” he said.
“And then playing the host state in the quarter-final — unfortunately they played really well, to their credit, and we had one poor quarter that really hurt us and didn’t allow us to medal.”
In terms of Goulburn Valley locals, Seymour’s Jesse Brock was the only one flying the flag for the region in the under-16 boys’ squad.
Waight said he was incredibly impressed with how the young gun performed and also highlighted a couple of other boys that performed strongly.
“Jesse did a great job, he competed all the way through the week and despite at times being undersized just battled his heart out,” he said.
“And then obviously Dash Daniels is a very good and dynamic player and had an excellent week — but overall everyone just played their role, which was pleasing.”
As for how beneficial the experience had been to his own coaching, Waight said he would look to bring some of the lessons he had learned from the championships back to his work with the Gators.
“There were different defensive systems you could use, offensive plays that you think could work really well with a different group of players — so all those things will really help going back to the Gators,” he said.
“Moving forward, I would love to stay involved with Victoria Country, it is a great opportunity to coach some really good players on the national stage and has been great for my coaching.”