LARA ISSUES COURT ORDER
LARA Basketball Club president Jason Aherne says his area should not be forgotten when it comes to a bid for more courts in the region.
Aherne said his club was at capacity, with a lack of court space preventing the Giants from taking on any more junior players.
The club boasts more than 350 juniors across 45 teams and uses court space at Lara Primary School, Lara Lake Primary School and Lara Secondary College to accommodate its players.
“We’ve basically got them booked four nights a week, four hours a night, which is just for training,” Aherne said.
“We haven’t got enough court space for us to make do right now, so we’re in a process of trying to work with council and Basketball Geelong to get better facilities for Lara.
“Our problem is we’re not an association, so we’re a non-for- profit club. We’ve got 10 teams just in under-14 boys alone, so we’re purely using it from a training point of view, so we’re not in a situation where we’ll be able to support ourselves to have a big fancy stadium and pay for the upkeep of it.”
With the Bellarine Peninsula Basketball Association also in desperate need of more courts in Drysdale, Aherne hoped Lara would not be forgotten.
“From our point of view, our concern would be purely around the interest being on one side of town and not looking at the northern suburbs,” he said.
“Bannockburn’s got a beautiful facility out there for their region and the Surf Coast has obviously got their approval last year for their region.
“We’re working with Basketball Geelong and they do have our interest at heart, but it’s a growing sport.
“We’ve basically doubled in size in the last six years and our numbers are going through the roof.”