Australian Uni Games 2009
Basketball preparations about to get on track
Thursday 13 August
Miles Rodriquez - Media Intern
As the excitement grows around Monash in the lead up to the Australian University Games 2009, many people would expect the competing teams to have chosen their players and be training on a weekly basis by now, six weeks from the beginning of the competition.
The male basketball team’s captain and manager, Tom Forde, says that although training for his team hasn’t yet started, the majority of the expected playing group is currently playing at a semi professional level, all over Victoria.
‘The big semi-pro Victorian leagues like the Big V and ABA haven’t finished yet, but their Grand Finals start this weekend,’ he said.
As unusual as it may sound for the AUG team not to be already training, many of the other competing sport’s teams are in the same situation due to the large amount of Victorian leagues completing their final fixtures for the season. The men’s soccer team for instance, completed try outs only two weeks ago, with training starting last week, in between normal Monash Soccer Club training.
With the bulk of the experienced and successful AUG basketball players being involved in the Big V Grand Final series being held at the Veneto Club in Bulleen, numbers at training could be small in the first week, but that won’t stop coach, Trevor Hunter, from commencing training this Sunday 16 August.
Despite some of the more well known players expected to be absent for the initial one or two training sessions, Mr. Forde still anticipates that training will attract some high quality first year Monash student players. ‘I expect to see a lot of players returning from previous AUG competitions.’
Although training has not yet started to give the coaching staff a chance to discover any new talent that they may take up to the Gold Coast, Mr. Forde, who has been involved in the AUG team for a number of years believes that it will be the younger, fresh faces in the team that will light the competition on fire, starting on Monday 28 September.
‘I will be expecting one or two new players to come out of the woodwork and dominate the tournament,’ he said.
Melbourne will play off against Ringwood in the best of three game Big V finals series this weekend and next weekend, after which AUG basketball training can get into full swing.
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