Community Spotlight Series: Aidan Courtney – Lara Giants
GUB’s Community Spotlight Series aims to shine a light on our community clubs that make up the majority of our weekly competitions.
We’ll be checking in with all club presidents to find out not only about them, but also some club history and what’s happening behind the scenes.
Tell us a bit about yourself and how long you’ve been affiliated with the club?
I’ve lived in Lara all my life where I played football and cricket. I’m considered a latecomer to basketball as I started playing in a social team when I was about 30 years old in the Corio Bay competition.
Shortly before the GUB merger, my friends and I moved our team to the Sharks where we still play together in Social competition. I now also play for Lara Giants in the Club competition.
I first became involved with Lara Giants in 2017 when my eldest Daughter wanted to play. A season later I began coaching her team and my son also started playing. I was coaching both my kids’ teams until 2020 where I didn’t need to coach either. Jason Aherne, who was President at the time, realized I had extra time on my hands and recruited me onto the club’s committee where I served as a junior coordinator. After a year off coaching I returned and have since continued to coach, which I find enjoyable and very rewarding.
In October 2024 I was promoted to President of the Lara Giants and am extremely well supported by fantastic group of passionate committee members. Currently I am also part of the GUB Community Competitions Working Group.
What area of Geelong does club the represent?
Our members are predominantly from Lara with many from surrounding suburbs such as Corio, Anakie and Werribee, but like most clubs we have players from all areas of Geelong.
How long has your club been operational for and what are some of the historical milestones for the club?
Lara Giants were formed in 1992 with a small number of teams and grew to around 40 teams by the time we celebrated our 25 years in 2017. In the following 5 years the Lara Giants doubled in size to become the first club in Geelong to enter over 80 teams in a season in 2022 .
Since the late 2010s, Lara Giants has emphasized inclusivity and youth development, introducing specialized programs for beginners such as Mini Giants, Little Giants and Shooting Stars as well as being one of the first clubs to cater for All-Abilities with the launch of our Mighty Giants program. Lara Giants are also proud to say we were one of the clubs that entered a team in GUB’s inaugural All-Abilities competition. The introduction of all these programs have been key milestones in broadening community participation in the sport and vital in developing skills at an early age in readiness for competition.
Without great people you don’t have a club and Lara has been lucky to have many fantastic volunteers over the years, headlined by our 6 Life Members: Pam Lamont, Geoff Henley, Rod Randall, Mark Evans, Jason Aherne & Lorraine Kulic. Rod Randall and Jason Aherne have also since been inducted as Life members of Geelong United in the past 2 years.
We are also proud that our recently retired Club Champion Jackson Bentley is currently the reigning MVP of the GUB Senior Men Championship.
What does the future hold for your club?
OFF COURT
Our larger goal is to have a Stadium that Lara Giants can call home and properly come together as a club. We will continue to work tirelessly with local authorities in pursuit of this.
To be able to have multiple teams train at the same time within the 1 facility would be a huge benefit. The current arrangement of training in 3 separate single court schools is quite restrictive when it comes to member engagement. Due to this we are always exploring ways we can improve engagement with our members as well as the wider community.
ON COURT
Player Development and retention for all junior age groups is a renewed focus of the committee, hence our partnership with DeMarcus Gatlin as Head of our Player Development. DeMarcus is a hugely respected leader within the Geelong Basketball community and it’s an exciting time for our members with group sessions commencing this month.
Over the past few years Lara Giants have been one of the few clubs to enter 2 teams into the Senior Men Championship Summer seasons with the clear objective of giving more of our talented young men exposure to the highest domestic level, to continue developing a strong homegrown team that can compete and win finals. Longer term, we want to provide the same opportunities to our Girls and Women. We still have a way to go to achieve this, but we are believe we have the upcoming talent that can get there.
