Dear Gator’s Family,

We hope you are holding up ok despite the current circumstances.

As you would be aware, the Victorian Government, on advice from the Department of Health, has extended the lockdown restrictions for Greater Melbourne with these measures to remain in place until at least 11:59pm, Thursday 2 September 2021. 

Accordingly, there will be No Training, Games or Programs run during this time, unless changes are made by the State Government.

At this stage, we are awaiting advice from the VJBL with respect to the junior season. Once we receive further updates, we will advise you accordingly. We encourage all our junior athletes to stay active. We have put together a module for you that can be found here.

Thank you to everyone who attended the session with Lisa Middleton last week. We are sure you will all agree, her presentation was fantastic and she provided many great strategies to ensure you can perform to your best ability on and off the court. If you wish to do further reading, her notes can be found here.

Big V have advised that they will not reschedule the games missed due to the current lock-down however are aiming to arrange a final series.

A massive congratulations to Cameron Wilkosz and our Senior Women who have finished a top of their division. Also to Lanard Copeland and our Senior Men and Randy Shanklin and our Youth League Women who have both finished second in their respective divisions.

Wonderful achievements in a difficult year. Unfortunately, our Youth League Men missed out on finals, we thank the coaches and players for their work this season.

Lastly,  Altona Gators Family, please join us as we say bon voyage to Tyla Paraha and Monique Marcetic-Vaotangi of our Youth League Women’s team.

Both are off to continue their education and basketball journeys in the United States college basketball system.

One of many  career highlights for these two talented players was being main contributors as bottom age U18’s to Altona’s 4th place ranking at the National Junior Classic Tournament.

Tyla Paraha was selected to two Victorian State teams (U18, U20) whilst at Altona and will continue her journey at NCAA DII Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina.

Monique Marcetic-Vaotangi was a back-to-back APS champion in her high school team and was a top 20 player in the state of Victoria for 4 straight seasons and will continue her journey at NJCAA DI Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The girls will join the list of recent Gators who have forged their path from “The Swamp” to The States including Kayla Salmons who departed a couple of weeks ago.

We wish the girls all the very best and look forward to continue to watch them shine.

We urge our players and families to stay in contact with your team-mates during the lock down period.

As always, we are here to support you and make sure we are ready to resume once we are able to do so. In the interim, take care and stay safe Gator’s family.

Altona Gators Basketball