YOUNG sports people today have the advantage of being able to go further with their chosen sport than those of yesteryear.
Today, it is not uncommon for local youngsters to progress into underage and senior state and Australian teams.
The point is, opportunities are there today that weren’t there many years ago.
Football was the odd one out because league clubs would send scouts to the country and teenagers would sign up, move to either Adelaide or Melbourne and play SANFL or VFL.
Unless parents had the money to send kids to private boarding schools where they would come under notice from cricket, netball, hockey or basketball coaches, most others were left playing inter-town sport which was the highest level they could achieve locally.
East Gambier leg spinner Zig Golebiowski was typical of a rare talent that never realised full potential through lack of opportunities.
He was the best leg spinner I played with and against, and I rated him as high as any Test spinner, having played alongside Terry Jenner when he played for the Test side from Mount Gambier in 1974-75.
Yahl’s Peter Sleep junior also grew up here and later played Test cricket as a leg spinner and batsman.
As a bowler, Golebiowski was better than both, and while state captain Les Favell tried desperately to get him to Adelaide, it never worked out unfortunately for the state and possibly Australia – he was that good.
South’s Robert Sims, as a tear-away fast bowler, had a state team under the pump when they played against a Mount Gambier side in 1969, ripping through the top order.
In basketball Don Harrap was before his time, both as a player and coach.
He taught himself to jump shoot before anyone in the town knew what it was.
But if there was one team the town would love to have their time again and bring them into today’s generation it would be Mount Gambier’s inter-town women’s basketball team from the 1970s and early 80s.
They were out-and-out champions and played against the best in Australia during that period to win 11 consecutive South Australian state titles and seven Victorian state titles.
When the news broke last week that the Pioneers only hope of getting a berth in the new revamped Victorian competition was to enter a women’s team, my immediately thoughts went back to those halcyon days.
The women’s teams of that era were not only ready-made for this type of competition but would probably dominate it.
Back in the 1970s Mount Gambier’s women were much stronger success-wise than the men, in fact the men struggled against other regional centres and in state carnivals for many years.
Some of the women who dominated during that period, initially coached by Bern Bruning, included Di Facey, Maureen Marrett, Chris Matheson (later Gould), the first town captain Jill Matheson (Douglas), Debbie Shelton who would later go on to play for West Adelaide, SA and Australia, Lorrie Kent (Faulkner) Colleen Kelly, Serena Norman and the Nash twins.
The great pity is that today’s fans wouldn’t understand the talent these women possessed, the way they trained and played, albeit often very aggressively and the high level competition they came up against and defeated.
It was suggested it would cost $120,000 to outfit a new Pioneers women’s team and when it was stated that they might have to recruit from outside the city for players my mind went back to the strength of the local
women’s A grade competition.
All clubs had their stars if there is any doubt about how tough they were, as well as being skilful and talented, there were occasions when the men and women inter-town squads would play against each other in training.
The women more than held their own and if playing today they wouldn’t need $120,000 or imports.
Unfortunately, framed photos of these winning women’s teams were in storage and if that is still the case they should be retrieved, dusted off and hung proudly around the stadium, not just to show off their successes but because they were the original trailblazers in local basketball.
