Geelong United Basketball’s yearly Pathways Awards Night is in the books, with 12 awards presented as we celebrated our NBL1 and BigV Youth League teams.
BigV YL1 Women:
Head Coach Brendon Matthews had plenty of praise for his team who have finished the regular season second overall on the YL1 Women’s Ladder, “Three years ago, I’m pretty sure the Youth League was suiting up maybe five, six players and that’s all they had. I reckon we had 21, 22 in our squad this year so it’s an army,” he said. “Selection is super hard, and the girls work super hard to be part of that and they’ve all bought in to what we’re trying to do. We’re about trying to get a championship. We finished second, that’s what we’re about and there’s nothing better than winning a championship together.”
Award Winners: Coaches Award – Matilda Sewell, Coaches Award – Neve Terpstra, Players’ Player – Matilda Sewell
BigV VYC Men:
It was a tough season for our VYC squad, but Head Coach Luke Beard remains optimistic highlighting some great achievements throughout the season that was. “We set ourselves this season to hit February in the qualifying tournament and get through to VC and be the first Geelong United men’s team to do that. We came up against Knox who had four under-19 Australian representatives in their team. All the commentary was around us probably not having much of a shot. We surprised everyone because of the character and our ability to stick together and we won that game by a point and made it through to VC, which was a big box tick before the season even started,” Beard Said. “Our aim then was to not just make up numbers. We wanted to make sure that we retained our spot in VC, which we’ve done. We’ve got a really young list up and coming through 18’s into what we’ve got with Youth League and the DP players that are continuing to develop in NBL1. So this is not the end of this group.
Award Winners: Players’ Player – Ethan Nicholls, Coaches Award – Malik Davis, MVP – Bailey Bruce
NBL1 South Women:
After an undefeated regular season, Head Coach Megan Moody’s main message, “We’re not done yet.” Speaking on the season, she heaped praise on her squad which have done something that is extremely tough to do in this league. “I think it’s a terrific culture that we’re all starting to build here and grow and I look forward to continuing and fostering that next season as well,” she said. “We’ve got a massive game to get on Saturday because we want to keep building on what we’ve got.”
Players Jaz Shelley and Gemma Potter also gave plenty of thanks for the community support they’ve received, “We really appreciate you guys and it really does go a long way to know that we’re supported by you guys, so thank you,” Jaz Said. Gemma Potter added, “It’s obviously my first season with the Geelong United NBL1 and it’s been nothing short of amazing both on and off court. This group has been super special, and I think our success on court, it goes alongside I guess the relationships that we have within a team off court.”
Award Winners: Players’ Player – Jaz Shelley, Defensive Player of the Year – Lilly Rotunno, MVP – Jaz Shelley
NBL1 South Men:
After an up and down year for our men’s squad, Head Coach Grant Wallace highlighted the contributions of his players and staff, and in particular the team physio, “We mentioned this in our room after our game on Saturday night, but our physio, Justin Edwards – I’ve been doing this a little while now and he’s one of the best physios I’ve ever had the experience to deal with, he’s just outstanding. He had his work cut out this year. We actually didn’t get all our team on the floor at one time throughout the course of the year because of injuries, so he was kept nice and busy on that side.”
Award Winners: Most Improved Player – Marach Marach, Co MVP – Tristan De Zwart Forsyth, Co MVP – DeMarcus Gatlin
