AN UPDATE FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Hi Warriors families,
Firstly apologies for the lengthy message, but there is a lot to cover. The too long didn’t read version of this message is :
We will be providing refunds of $110.00 per player on the Winter Season to be applied as a discount on payment for the coming Summer season - only for previous players.
Registration for the upcoming seasonis now open, click on the links here. We will not be taking payments until there is more certainty on the upcoming season.
If you need help with anything (including if the process for refund doesn’t work for you) please reach out to us.
Please follow and engage with us on Facebook and Instagram.
Unfortunately the winter season 2021 appears to be coming to a disappointing and now sadly familiar conclusion. The basketball community including the MBA, the Clubs and the local schools have put a lot of time and effort into trying to fit in as much basketball into 2021 as we can, for the most important members of our community, the kids. To be where we are today is personally frustrating given how much effort gets put in by so many within the basketball community.
I feel particularly heartbroken for the kids who miss out on something that brings so much joy to so many. You only need to look at what the Olympic bronze medal for our Men’s team meant to so many people in Australia to get a feeling for how tight the Basketball community is. Nothing used to illustrate that more for me than playing at the Albert Park basketball stadium as a kid, knowing the Gaze’s family home adjoined the stadium. Yes I am that old. Basketball is a sport that grew up in Australia as I was growing up. It is a big family. It means a lot to so many. And now so many are missing the chance to develop their love for the game, in the same way that I was fortunate enough to.
I’d personally like to thank all players, parents, coaches, managers, referees and volunteers and administrators from both our club and across the MBA for their amazing persistence and patience in the face of so much uncertainty.
We recognise that these challenging times can have a significant impact on our youth, yet I am so often amazed at how resilient they can be. That being said if anyone in your family is finding the current situation particularly challenging I’d encourage you to reach out for support. There are some excellent resources available digitally including Welcome to Head Health, and Vic Health’s Ten go-to mental health organisations for young people.
As we closeut the Winter season, we wanted to provide you with an update on our plans in regards to fees that you have paid for the current season.
We plan on providing a refund to Winter Season 2021 participants of $110.00 per player. This is made up of
A refund from the MBA on charges to the club for each team.
A refund from the MBA on the prepayment of door fees for each player.
A refund from the club taking into account our reduced costs in areas such as venue hire and coaching.
Our preferred method to process this refund will be by providing it as a discount on the coming season, when we start to collect registration fees for the new season. This saves an enormous amount of administration for the volunteers at our club. We will provide more details on this process when we begin taking payment for the coming season.
We are aware that the refunds don’t cover 50% of the fees you have paid. However, we have passed on the entirety of the refunds that we received from the MBA and we have refunded an amount from the club that we don’t feel jeopardises our long term stability. Please keep in mind that we are a relatively young and small club.
If our preferred method for providing the discount doesn’t work for you for any reason at all, please contact us and we will assist in ensuring that you receive the refund. We are aware the pandemic is creating financial hardship for families and we want to do everything we can to support you.
So in the interests of trying to help our community move forward, on to the Summer season.
We think that it has never been more important than right now to get kids out playing a great sport with their friends and teammates in a supportive environment as soon as we possibly and safely can. We realise that after the last 18 months with things stopping, starting, stopping again it is difficult to keep up the motivation for the players and families alike.
The change over from Winter to Summer season brings with it the added complexity of age group changes (made more difficult without a lot of play or trials to baseline where the kids are at). It’s very important for us to start planning for that now.
Here is what we know about the Summer Season plans right now:
There will be 13 scheduled rounds with a potential to play 4 rounds of finals. The intent is to keep
In recognition of the above we will be setting the fee at $235. Again, this fee does not need to be paid now.
MBA plan to return to taking door fees for players and spectators at the door again for this coming season.
Michael will send out details on the registration process shortly. There are no club fees or association fees being taken at this time. You may need to renew your Basketball Victoria Licence fee which runs for twelve months. Please check here for the latest information on that fee.
We are working on some innovations to drive more engagement from home with our head coach Matt Tolnai working on some weekly challenges, with prizes on offer, that will go out through our various communication channels. Make sure you follow us on:
And our new Insta account https://www.instagram.com/sewarriors/
Please make sure you are tagging us and sharing us in your posts and stories as it only helps to build our presence in the community. We want you to reach out to us if you have ideas how we can do different things as a club that will make your kids and your family feel more a part of the Warriors community while we aren’t able to get together.
For everyone that would like to look at other ways to support the club during these challenging days, we are always looking for people to help out on the committee and help as coaches and team managers.
One of the best ways you can help us both financially and in promoting the club is to purchase some of our excellent merch that is available on our website .
We know these are challenging times and the Warriors are here to help and support your children and you families in any way that we can. We can’t wait to see all of our players back out on the court enjoying the game that we all love.
Kane Washington
President.