THE Mount Gambier Pioneers Basketball Club has thrown down the gauntlet that it intends to rebound into a Victorian-based elite league next year.
While the Pioneers have secured a spot in the South Australia Basketball Premier League this season, officials have warned the end game is to be accepted into the recently rebranded National Basketball League 1 (NBL1).
Club officials – who have been rallying to save the iconic 30-year-old sporting institution – will meet with interstate basketball officials this month in Mount Gambier to begin the groundwork to re-enter an interstate league.
This looming hometown meeting is expected to be a possible game-changer given the arrival of Basketball Australia heavyweights into the Blue Lake city.
It is hoped the unprecedented visit by officials will help them gain an understanding of the entrenched community support for Pioneers, which has been one of the most successful teams ever to play in the former South East Australia Basketball League.
Club president Tom Kosch – along with coaching staff – attended the Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting this week to give the community an update over the club’s developments and challenges.
“Regardless of the past seven months, the Pioneers’ brand and profile has never been bigger but we need community support more than ever,” Mr Kosch said.
The club leader conceded Mount Gambier’s locality and lack of connectivity with officials in Melbourne had hurt the club.
But he said the club was working to strengthen those connections to ensure the organisation was at the “forefront of decisions”.
“The long term future of the Mount Gambier Pioneers is very much a community issue. We have a rich history of 30 years and we have done all that we can as a basketball club,” he said.
Explaining the club’s entry into the Adelaide Premier League was “unsustainable” in longer term, he said preserving the club’s history and the arrival of a women’s team was an
“exciting” chapter.
“As a club we are looking to putting the past seven months behind us and our board remains committed to finding a long term and sustainable competition for a club to be part of,” he said.
“In March, we will host representatives from Basketball Australia, Basketball Victoria and Basketball SA in Mount Gambier.”
He described this as a “benchmarking workshop” in the lead up to re-applying for the Victorian elite competition in July.
While the club had been thrown some major challenges, he said the organisation had now assembled both a men’s and women’s team.
He said this was a major feat for the sporting organisation given the string of players left the club amid the uncertainty.
Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce president Biddie Shearing said before the club’s presentation she did not fully understand the “depth of hurt” suffered by the community.
“I really think resilience is such an incredible description for what the club and the board have been through,” Ms Shearing said.
“The leadership has been fighting hard for what they believe in.”
The new look competition will see the club host Saturday night games, instead of the traditional Friday night fixtures.
