Sport
Shepparton locals Isabel Whitelaw and Boston Dowling enjoy National Championships experience
When it comes to the basketball journeys of Shepparton duo Boston Dowling and Isabel Whitelaw, the similarities are remarkable.
Coming from families that have been connected for three generations through local football and basketball, the pair struck up an incredible friendship way back in kinder and have together climbed the ranks of local and state basketball.
Both now plying their trade in Melbourne with the Eltham Wildcats (Boston) and Hawthorn Magic (Isabel), the pair were recently selected to play for Victoria in the Australian National Championships in Ballarat, serving as the culmination of years of hard work.
And while it wasn’t the most successful tournament for Victoria Country’s respective under-18 sides, finishing fifth (girls) and sixth (boys), they were able to strut their stuff on the national stage with the games streamed on Kayo.
In the boys team, Dowling offered valuable contributions across the week, averaging 4.89 points over the nine games.
Whitelaw enjoyed a fantastic week, averaging 6.75 points a game and shooting an impressive 34.78 per cent from beyond the arc.
Dowling said being able to take his talents to the National Junior Championships and represent Victoria Country was a dream come true.
“It has been great, I have been working towards this my whole life and just all the guys I have been picked with, they are all great mates of mine,” Dowling said.
“It was awesome to play on the big stage and being streamed on Kayo people back home and my mates at school were able to watch and get around it which was very nice.”
Surrounded by a lot of great friends through the Victoria Country set-up, the week was made all the more special by the presence of his great friend Issy on the girls team.
Having grown up together and climbed the junior ranks in both Shepparton (culminating in them being named the female and male GSBA 2018 Rising Stars) and down in Melbourne, he said it was fantastic to see her perform well on the national stage.
“We have been good family friends right from when we were born because Dad and Issy’s dad used to play together,” he said.
“We began playing basketball together from a young age and have just climbed the ranks, we moved down to Hawthorn together and played there, and it has just been great always having her there.
“Doing training sessions together and working through the off-season, we have always pushed each other, and it is great to now see us both getting that reward.
“To start off being junior rising stars together to then be in the state teams together, it is really special.”
For Dowling, basketball isn’t his only passion, having also enjoyed a dominant junior football career that currently has him in the under-19s Murray Bushrangers squad, and down at Melbourne’s Trinity Grammar on a scholarship.
He said he had enjoyed the challenge of balancing the two sports and was wary that he would likely have to make a call on his athletic future in the years ahead.
“I am going really well (juggling the sports), obviously I am down here (at Trinity Grammar) on both a footy and basketball scholarship, so I have to do both at the moment,” he said.
“But I am managing really well with the sports and schoolwork, and it is working quite nicely for me right now.
“There will come a time when I do have to make a decision though and I’ll make that call, but at the moment I’m just enjoying my time playing both sports.”