Two years ago a group of Greater Shepparton Basketball Association and Shepparton Gators members sat around a table at a Shepparton cafe for a discussion that would shape the future of basketball in our town.
They were at a crossroads.
The Gators needed to go in a different direction, or they would dissolve.
Fast forward to now and Shepparton Gators have achieved promotion to the championship, Big V’s top division and the summit of basketball in Victoria.
It’s a historic achievement; the current squad of Gators, who achieved back-to-back division one grand finals before winning last season, have the chance to duke it out with the best teams and players in the state for the first time in more than two decades.
Shepparton has history in the championship, with a dominant 10-year stretch from 1994 to 2003 that included four trophies at the top level.
Gators director Steve Beks said he couldn’t believe the journey the club had been on since he took over following that meeting ahead of the 2022 season.
“We had a reasonably competitive team that year, but we’d only get 100-150 fans at a game back then,” Beks said.
“We were struggling and something needed to change.”
When Beks took over, he started to look at the squad and see what strengths he could capitalise on to try to right the ship.
He had a core of Shepparton players and coaches who had different roles within education and schools.
So he started there.
“We wanted to engage the kids and make it a fun family night out,” Beks said.
“Once you got the kids to go, they’d bring the parents and, eventually, everyone would get hooked.”
He wanted to do something different and make game day an experience for the fans.
They had DJs with special announcements and songs set up as the players walked out and half-time shows and games set up for the home crowd.
Beks recalled the first game of that season, an anxious night for him and his family as they tried to get off on the right foot.
The game was at 7pm, and at 6.15pm, Beks looked around and could swear he saw a tumbleweed fly past in Shepparton Sports Stadium.
He went off to keep himself busy and returned about 15 minutes later to bleachers full of fans.
It was onwards and upwards from there.
In 2022, they reached the grand final of division one, losing a heartbreaker to Bellarine.
Last season, they made it right, reaching the grand final again and knocking off the RMIT Redbacks for the title belt.
Beks admitted going up to the championship wasn’t an easy decision, with financial strain and the desire to remain competitive and capitalise on the momentum of the recent success.
But it was also a chance to challenge themselves, bring the most elite basketball players, coaches and teams to Shepparton and showcase the town on a completely different stage.
For Steve’s son and Gators vice-captain Sam Beks, it’s a chance to walk in the footsteps of the great Gators that came before him and try to consolidate Shepparton’s position in the premier league of Victorian basketball.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Sam said.
“It’s an opportunity for us to go and challenge ourselves in one of the best leagues with some of the best teams and players in the country.
“We don’t want to be there just to be there, we want to be competitive and we’ve got hefty expectations after winning the division.
“It’s going to be amazing for the fans as well and I’m sure we’ll still have the best home crowd in the championship.”
Sam and Steve alluded to recruits set to bolster their bid for a finals push and to watch this space with signing announcements coming up.
“With the Shepparton players we have now, it’s so important for the kids to be able to see their role models and have something to aspire towards,” Steve said.
“The kids are realising they don’t need to go to Bendigo or another town, the sky is the limit right here in Shepparton.”