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2021 Competitions Update (posted 20/8/2021)

Dear Norths Members,

Please find below an update on COVID-19 & how this has impacted our 2021 competitions.

COVID Update

It goes without saying that the past week has been difficult. COVID-19 has affected not just our basketball activities, but our entire lives. This has hit close to home for our basketball community, with Basketball ACT (BACT) Belconnen & Southern Cross Stadiums being identified as exposure locations, and even one of our own training venues listed as a close contact site (Gold Creek Senior Gym on Monday 09 Aug from 5-10pm).

Please be advised that in these instances, ACT Health have advised not to send out blanket updates to members, and that they will contact individuals directly if they are deemed to be close, casual or secondary contacts. You would have seen the capacity challenges affecting the ACT COVID test facilities since the lockdown and the authorities do not want other parties to cause unnecessary alarm which would exacerbate these challenges.

2021 Winter Competitions Update

Club Presidents met with BACT officials on 19^th August to discuss the way forward for our Junior & Senior winter competitions. A number of courses of actions are currently being considered, and the final outcome will ultimately be determined by the length of the lockdown. The current BACT priority is to finalise the winter season before commencing summer activities. In terms of timeframes, you can expect a gradual return to the courts when the lockdown is finished (1-2 training weeks before competitions resume). Further information will be provided as soon as it is available.

2021 Summer Competitions Update

The 2021/22 Senior Social Summer Competition is due to start on 18 October. Please visit the Norths Seniors page for information on playing in a Norths team in this competition.

Juniors:

This year Basketball ACT (BACT) is bringing in a new re-structured and shorter summer season for junior players which will be played over Term 4 of the school calendar. In summary the new competitions are:

Junior Summer Slam - this is the top tier competition for juniors over the 2021 Summer Season. This competition will be managed exclusively by Basketball ACT. It is being offered to Under 15 and Under 17 age groups only. BACT will conduct a series of trials ahead of a Junior Slam Draft process where BACT appointed coaches will select players for a team. Games begin on the weekend of 23 October; Grand Finals will be on 4 December. Further information on participating in the Junior Slam can be found on the Basketball ACT Junior Slam site.

Junior Summer Open - this is the second tier for juniors over the summer season. It is being offered for Under 12 - Under 19 age groups but is restricted to one Club-based team per age group; and

Junior Summer Social competitions – this is for all age groups (Under 10s – Under 19s) divisions 1-6 (or as many as required) and is open to Clubs and Non-Club based teams.

Further information on these programs is on the Basketball ACT website.

While the COVID lockdown may affect these programs, at this stage team registration deadlines have not changed.

On that note, the Norths Committee met earlier this month and decided that Norths would not be registering club teams in the 2021 Junior Summer Open or Junior Summer Social season.

The main reason why the Committee made this decision was the impact on our volunteer administrators. The time and effort involved for our volunteer coordinators, coaching directors and financial managers to organise and register teams in the short turnaround from the end of the current season to registration completion for the new short seven-week competition was considered unreasonable. The Committee decided that it was more practical to look after our volunteer cohort to ensure the longer-term welfare of our club and its small band of volunteers.

However – we will not be abandoning our members. The Committee is excited to announce that we will be running a program of development and skills sessions for our players using current training venues throughout the summer period. More information will be sent out in the coming weeks with session details and registration links. We will also put information up on the Norths website and Facebook page.

If you would still like to play over the summer period, we encourage you to talk with your coach, manager and teammates and consider registering directly with Basketball ACT as a Non-Club based team in the Junior Summer Social competition. Non-Club based teams can contain players that played in the 2021 winter season for any BACT Member club but those players must then return to their member club for the 2022 Winter season. You can wear your Norths uniforms and even call your team Norths XXX but Norths will not be providing a coach or training time slots or collecting fees for these teams. Details on registering a team in the Junior Summer Social competition can be found on the Basketball ACT Junior Social site.

Whilst this may come as a disappointment to many, the Committee decided it was important to support the welfare of our volunteer cohort at this time. The Committee also decided that using the summer break to develop our players and concentrate on skill-based activities would be a better use of resources and help our players to get better prepared for the 2022 Winter season, as well as the ACT representative trials that will be held by Basketball ACT around November.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please message us via our Norths Basketball Facebook page and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Kind regards

The Norths Committee

Norths Basketball Club