THE ROCKETEER

 

Newsletter of the Rowville Rockets Basketball Club

 

 

Rowville Rockets Family Fun Day

 

 

WHEN:            Sunday November 24th 2002  -  3.00 pm

 

WHERE: Rowville Community Centre,  Fulham Road,   Rowville

 

 

Please note this date in your diary now as a day not to be missed.

 

Stay tuned for more details in the NEXT Newsletter.

 

 

President’s Corner

 

The club has had a very busy month of September.  Firstly, eleven Rockets teams qualified for the finals in the Dandenong winter competition.  This is a fantastic effort by all of those teams.  For the teams that missed out, well done for a good season and good luck for the next.

Our grand final team results were:

·     Sanita Canning’s under 12 (3) team lost to Springvale.  Unfortunately, the boys had beaten this team during the season, but were unable to play at their best in the big one.  A great effort by all.

·     Peter Farragher’s Under 11 boys lost to Dingley.  All the team contributed in the game, but the better team won on the day. 

·     Peter Farragher’s other team, the under 14 (5) team won  40 to 25 against DSD Dolphins.  Another fine team effort by this terrific team.

·     Gary James coached the under 12 (1) team to a nail biting 44 to 40 win over Cranbourne.  This group showed great poise to win the big game.  Great job!

·     Mark Plumridge  is  becoming  the  Leigh  Matthews  of the club, with  another  masterful coaching job.  His under 16 boys played a very disciplined and controlled game to win 42 to 24 over the Hallam Hawks!

·     Joe  Scerri’s  under  14 boys  suffered a  tragedy when  a time mix  up meant  that  they inadvertently gave a walkover to Cranbourne.  All club members feel for the boys, as they had worked tremendously hard to reach the Grand Final and had a genuine chance to win it.  Let’s hope that they get another chance!

·     Fred Dykman and his under 14 group won 23 to 20 over Dingley in another close one.  Fred  returned  from  holiday  at  just the right time to steer the boys to the championship!

·     Sandra Chapman’s under 12 (2) team played a terrific game to overwhelm Wedge 38 to 14.   This was  a really strong  team and  all of the  boys  contributed  to  the successful season.

 

I had the pleasure of watching nearly all the games and was most impressed and quite proud of the way our teams played.  All players were a credit to their families and club.  Well done. 

Congratulations to all teams, with special thanks to coaches, managers and all the parents who make the effort to support the teams each week.

Knox teams will begin finals in the second week of October.  We will be well represented and would like as many Rockets families to support our finalists.  More in the next newsletter and check the website for game times.

Fun Day 


Organisation for the Family Fun and Presentation Day is continuing.  Please make the effort to come along, support the club and enjoy the day.  Put Sunday, November 24th in your diary, NOW!   MVP, Coaches Awards, Premiership, Runners-up and participation trophies for both winter seasons will be presented.  Plus, we have plenty of wonderful prizes to be won, competitions to participate in and plenty to eat and drink.  We need your support to help raise the money for the new uniforms! The Fun Day is at 3 pm at the Community Centre in Fulham road. 

                                                                                                                                               

Uniforms

We have  approval from  both Dandenong and Knox  associations for us to go ahead with our new uniforms.  Therefore, we are now in the process of having uniforms made and will start measuring teams up.  The final cost of the uniforms is $65 each.  This is an increase of around $5 - $10 per uniform but,  when you see the result, is well worth it.  Please note that the club will supplement existing club members a total of $30 per uniform.  New players and those playing in loan uniforms will be required to pay the total cost. 

Please note that the  changeover will  take at least two  seasons and will mean that we may have uniform shortages from time to time.  We will handle these shortages as best we can, but if you have any old uniforms at home, please allow us to borrow them to help us through this changeover period.  Call Sue Ewin if you can help.

 

Team Selection

Finally, it is timely to review with you all our team selection philosophy and process.  As we change over from one season to the next at both associations, we have to select new teams and enter them in the appropriate  association.   Believe  me when I  say that this is not an easy task!   Our team coordinators and coaching directors meet on many occasions to discuss and review their team lists, to ensure that we place the children in the appropriate teams.  We receive assessment sheets from coaches (at least we “should”), view the children at the assessment night, watch training and games and talk with representative coaches where relevant and generally, make every effort to ensure that we can place your child in a team where they are comfortable, are able to compete, learn and enjoy their basketball.  A few points I would like to point out:

·     A panel made up of committee members, including the age level coordinators, reviews all team selections.

·     The club will make an effort to keep teams together, but this is not our highest priority.  Children  develop  at  differing  speeds  and it is not  always fair  to simply  put teams  up together.

·     Our main priority is to make a fair and reasonable assessment of each child’s current ability and to place  them in a  team that  reflects that ability.   While potential is important at representative level, it is not as important at domestic level.

·     Our ideal team size is 7 or 8 players.  We will  try to avoid  teams of 9 and  10 wherever possible.  But, in some cases we cannot avoid this.

 

In conclusion,  please understand that volunteers,  people who give up their  time to help out and assist, run the club.  When one considers the task of picking 56 teams (around 400 players) for two associations and four seasons per twelve months, I am sure you can see the enormity of the task.  Having said that, we acknowledge that we may not  “get it right” every time!   If you  have any questions or comments regarding team selection, please don’t hesitate to contact your committee liaison member or any member of the committee.

 

Yours in basketball,

 

Dean Templeton

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN OCTOBER TO

 

Krystal Sharp                                           2/10/87

Cameron Hall                                         4/10/94

Daniel Carroll                                          5/10/88

Leigh Mc Innes                                       5/10/88

Dean Mendes                                          6/10/89

Andrew Garrick                                      7/10/94

Joshua Ewin                                           7/10/89

Nathan Canning                                    9/10/91

Simon Woodlock                                   10/10/93

Ben Heuston                                           11/10/89

Lynsey Pritchard                                     11/10/89

Chris Klimecki                                        12/10/83

Gavin Knight                                          12/10/88

Casey Alabaster                                       12/10/90

James Unsworth                                     13/10/84

Danelle Thiele                                         17/10/89

Kayla Thiele                                            17/10/89

Andrew Hudson                                     18/10/85

Darren Keane                                          19/10/90

Bradley White                                         19/10/93

Jane Vanin                                              20/10/86

Calvin Craik                                             21/10/86

Jessica Hodson                                       21/10/92

Kate Smillie                                             21/10/92

Courtney Jopling                                   22/10/94

Brad Paull                                                23/10/92

Gianni Marino                                        24/10/89

Ben D’Rosario                                         26/10/90

Jack Rickard                                            27/10/92

Tim Woods                                             28/10/85

Greg Madder                                           28/10/88

Timothy Pepprell                                    28/10/92

Benjamin Hall                                         29/10/89

Darren Catmull                                       29/10/90

Ailsa Rajasingham                                  29/10/91

Mitchell Garner                                      29/10/91

Alec Farragher                                        29/10/93

Brady Thomas                                         30/10/93

Simon Reed                                             31/10/88

 

 

 

 

Team Name

U/12.1

Association

Dandenong

Gender

Boys

Coach

Gary James

 

The Rowville Rockets U12A team,  playing at Dandenong,  have had a very productive season, losing only one game for the home and away season.  As a team, we have really understood our game plan, our strengths and weaknesses, and played great basketball.  The team consists of Max McAra, Sean Visca,  Calvin Enge,  Nathan Madder,  Brenton Allen, Lucas Gibbons and Mitchell Garner and Melinda Visca, our team manager.  As coach, I am extremely proud of each player and the development they have shown, both at training and game day.  The Grand Final was special, the game going into overtime.  The boys  really  came together  in the end and won by  4  points.   What a fantastic performance from all the boys!  A big thanks to all the parents for their support over the season.

 

 

 

Team Name

U/14.5

Association

Dandenong

Gender

Boys

Coach

Joe Scerri

 

Rowville Rockets Under 14E Reserves had a slow start to the season,  but  a dramatic improvement through training and dedication, brought them into the Grand Final.

A week of excitement led to despair as on the day we discovered an error in court times led to a default, thus leaving us runner up!

The boys cannot be ashamed of this as they did not lose the game, because they were unable to play.

I would like to congratulate the boys, as I’m sure they had a good chance of winning and it has been a pleasure coaching them.

 

COACHES

Any coaches who would like to share their teams achievements with us are asked  to submit  a BRIEF report for publication in the  next newsletter.     Also,  those  coaches  whose  teams  have made the  finals at Knox, please let us know how your teams have progressed.

 

Please forward these reports to your coaching director by the end of October for inclusion in the November edition.                

                                                    Thankyou.

 

 

 

 

GOOD LUCK TO ALL

TEAMS PLAYING IN

FINALS AT KNOX

OVER THE

COMING WEEKS.

 

 

WE HOPE YOU

HAVE FUN

AND DO WELL!!!!

 

 

 

WANTED

BOYS COORDINATOR  -  KNOX  -  U/14 - U/18

 

Are you interested in joining our committee in the role of Boys Coordinator (U14 — U18). 

If  you  would  like to be  involved in  assessing  players  abilities and  helping  with  team selection, we would love to hear from you.                

                                                        Please contact Dean Templeton for more information.

 

 

FIRST AID KITS

 

FORMER TEAM MANAGERS

If you are in possession of a Rowville Rockets First Aid Kit but are no longer acting as a team manager, please phone the  property officer  ASAP to  arrange for the return of the kit.

The first aid kits are urgently needed for re-issuing to current team managers.

CURRENT TEAM MANAGERS

If you are a current team manager in need of a first aid kit or supplies for your existing kit, please phone the property officer ASAP. 

ALL TEAM MANAGERS ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE A FIRST AID KIT, INCLUDING ICE PACK, AT EACH GAME.

 

Sue Ewin  -  Property / Uniforms   PH:  9752 9951

 

 

TEAM MANAGERS

 

The November issue of

the“Rocketeer”

will be available from your committee “liaison”

member during the week of  November 11th, 2002

 

.

 

The Rowville “Rocketeer”  is proudly printed by

Snap Printing, 

3 Neutron Place, Rowville, 3178

Telephone  -  9764 9884

 

 

 

 

ROCKET CONTACTS

 

 

President

Dean Templeton             9753 2762

Secretary

Christine Peters              9755 7333

Treasurer

Charles Heap                 9759 7178

Vice President

Mark Plumridge              9752 8998    

Assistant Treasurer

Raelene Unsworth          9763 4450

Teams  Controller—Communication

Allan Billham                  9763 5224

Registrar

Sue Ellul                         9759 6068

Dandenong Coordinator 1Coordinator 2

 

Peter Farragher               9795 7477

Melinda Visca                 9764 3317

Knox Coordinators  Girls

Boys 8—12

Boys 14—18

 

Nikki Johnson                 9759 7259

Edwine Stoove               9764 4506

Uniforms/Property

Sue Ewin                        9752 9951

Uniform Orders

Angie Rondinella            9759 6264

Newsletter

Diane Lehmann              9752 7653

Coaching Director 1

Director 2

Peter Friend                   9763 5944

Glen Canning                 9763 6617