Geelong bridges gap for the girls

GEELONG has moved to protect its young female basketballers from AFL scouts by expanding its program to include a women’s under-20 team next season.

The Supercats boast three under-16 and three under-18 girls teams in the Victorian Junior Basketball League, with a Youth League women’s side (under-23s) the next peg up.

But Supercats chief executive Dean Anglin said an under-20 side would bridge that gap.

“We’ve seen our women’s program get stronger and stronger over the last three years,” Anglin said.

“The next frontier for us is to enter into the Victorian under-20 competition.

“We’ve had three teams at an under-16 level and an under-18 level for the last two years, and obviously as those kids get older we want to create more opportunities for those kids to play.

“They either get lost to the system, or they make it into a Youth League team or Division 1 women’s or SEABL team.

“We’re really lucky I guess that our local competition is so strong that those players can still play locally, not get lost to the sport.”

Anglin said it was the direct response to the threat of women’s football in Geelong and Victoria.

“I think, from our point of view, we’re continuously focused on strengthening our women’s program,” he said.

“We’ve got to be mindful of the fact AFL have got a fairly vigorous push into women’s sport; that’s going to have an impact on basketball and we want to make sure we do everything we can to give girls an opportunity to keep playing.

“As our three teams of under-18 girls get towards the end of their time, there’s not going to be a spot for every one of them in Youth League, so we’ve got to create a path way for them to stay in.”

Damian Withers, who has coached the girls at under-16 and under-18 level, will be the team’s first coach.

“We’ve always wanted to put the under-20s in but we’ve never been able to secure a coach for the team. We’re now locked in with Damian Withers for the under-20s and that will give us a really strong program,” Anglin said.