By JARROD POTTER
ONE of Australia’s best emerging basketball talents has just moved in.
Wanting to be closer to the city with her family to cut down on travel, new Pakenham resident Jaz Shelley, 15, comes to Cardinia Shire with a fair bit already on her playing resume. She’ll don the Vic Country jersey for a second time after impressing at last year’s Basketball Australia Under-16 National Championships as a bottom-age player.
This year she will lead the side out onto court as captain and Shelley hopes to be a strong presence on and off the court, as she believes Vic Country is in the running to win an elusive national title on the back of a power-packed roster.
“Recently I made the under-16 state basketball team for Vic Country and I just made captain as well,” Shelley said.
“I was aiming to be our captain this year and I got that a couple of weeks ago and I was pretty happy with that.
“We came fifth last year, but we have a really good shot this year because we have a strong team – I think we have a chance.”
She’s also just returned from a trip to the Australian Institute of Sport, invited by national women’s coach Brendan Joyce and his staff to assess who are the best under-17 players in the country ahead of the 2016 FIBA World Championships.
“Just went away to Canberra – Monday to Thursday last week – and trained with Brendan Joyce and all the AIS girls,” Shelley said.
“I think it was to be identified for the under-17 Australian team… just the experience of being up there and seeing how the girls live and being in the AIS…. it’s good to be on their radar, but you’ve got to keep going.”
She’s taken those lessons from her Vic Country experience and AIS tour back to the BIG V, where she is currently lighting up the court as one of the league’s top junior prospects.
Shelley leads in assists in BIG V’s State Championship Women – one of Victoria’s highest calibre competitions – as she has rattled off 4.1 per game alongside 4.3 rebounds and 11.6 points.
It’s a mix that will terrify opposition players as the point guard – who stands 172cm tall – is able to mix it with all types up and down the court, ball in hand or under the ring snaring rebounds.
“It’s good – I sort of worked my way into it from the start of the season,” Shelley said.
“I thought I was going to get maybe 15 minutes, 10 minutes a game, but then I worked my way up to being one of the main players.”
That was made perfectly clear two weeks ago in a highly touted BIG V clash against the Waverley Wildcats – featuring two WNBL players in Carley Mijovic and Tegan Cunningham – as Shelley starred to almost reel in a rare triple-double.
She put up 18 points, nine assists and eight rebounds to push the Sharks to a 73-72 nail-biting victory and push Southern Peninsula up the ladder to fourth.
“We knocked off Waverley the other week – was a big win for us,” Shelley said.
“We weren’t expecting it, but yes, we went in for development with a young team.
The oldest is about 23, so we went in with a young team and it turns out we’re doing well.”
Shelley wanted to thank her mum and dad for driving her to all points of the state and beyond.
She’ll head off to Tasmania with her Vic Country team mates in July for a chance to take the title off arch-rivals Vic Metro.
