A post-Covid surge has driven a complete explosion of player numbers at the Surfcoast Basketball Association over the past two years, including a near tripling of teams in one junior division.
SBA boss Leon Sayers said the association had been forced to use additional courts at four local primary schools to ease the squeeze as more families move to the region amid improved player pathways in the VJBL and the emergence of the Surfcoast Chargers in the Big V.
“They don’t have to play somewhere else, they can play here locally and still get the same opportunity,” Sayers said.
It follows a similar situation at the Bellarine Peninsula Basketball Association, which has eight courts for more than 300 teams.
Surfcoast’s access to the four-court Wurdi Baierr Stadium is complemented by two courts at Torquay College plus additional single courts at Torquay Coast, Armstrong Creek and Bellbrae primary schools.
Surf Coast Chargers player Mel Jackson with SBA board members Adam Forde, David Scott, Leon Sayers and Rebecca Lewis at Wurdi Baierr Stadium. Picture: Mike Dugdale
He said the sourcing of Bellbrae had been something of a circuit breaker, with the school hosting its first batch of games on Monday night.
The association is also planning to access a court at Anglesea Primary School for summer season games.
It comes as the total number of players has more than doubled from around 900 to more than 1800 over the past two years to the 2022-23 summer season, according to association data provided to this publication.
Teams across the board have close to doubled to around 230 over the same period of time.
Sayers said it left minimal options for training and had thwarted plans to get an all abilities competition up and running.
“We know by summer season … we’re probably going to be tight (for space),” Sayers said.
There has also been a massive spike in the number of Under 14 boys teams, jumping from 13 to 31 over the same two-year period, while the number of boys teams has also close to doubled, from around 60 to about 130.
There has been an explosion in player numbers at the Surfcoast Basketball Association. Picture: SBA
He said the association had been forced to move one of the Under 14 boys winter competition divisions to a Saturday, resulting in a drop off in teams due to clashes with local football.
“We had a bit of backlash from parents and kids about playing on a Saturday,” he said.
“But there was nowhere to put them during the week.
“We’re running out of places to go.”
The number of summer men’s teams has risen from 21 to 35 over the same period of time.
There has also been a rapid rise in the number of Under 16 and 12 girls teams, from four to 11 and four to 14 respectively.