By Marcus Uhe
Pakenham’s Cardinia Life Stadium was the place to be on Sunday 13 February as the Pakenham Warriors Big V Mens Basketball team welcomed the Australian Goannas for an exhibition game.
The event doubled as a preseason hit-out for the Warriors and a fundraising day for the Goannas, a team comprised of Australia’s best deaf basketballers from across the country.
Local DJ Luke Harrison provided the soundtrack to the 105-52 Warriors victory, while junior teams provided the half time entertainment and former ‘The Voice’ contestant Maddison McNamara sung the national anthem.
$7000 was raised for the Goannas, which massively exceeded expectations of Warriors coach Rob Roberts.
“The day was more about fundraising than the game itself,” Mr Roberts said.
“We were hoping to raise around $2000-3000. To raise as much as we did was an unbelievable result.”
Mr Roberts was the brains behind the idea, having previously coached members of the Goannas squad at a previous club.
Tickets were priced at $5, while a silent auction was held and a signed South East Melbourne Phoenix guernsey and donated gift packs from Pakenham’s Victorian Junior Basketball League teams were raffled-off, helping push the final mark to what it reached.
Both squads arrived at the venue earlier than required to assist with junior teams’ training sessions as the camaraderie between both sides built throughout the day.
The Goannas are not funded by Basketball Australia and therefore players pay their way to represent the national team, gathering from across the country throughout the year for training camps, with a standard cost of approximately $200 per athlete.
Head coach of the Goannas, Brent Reid said that donations of that capacity would make a world of difference to the members of his team.
“It’s very humbling that a club and some specific individuals appreciate what the guys do enough to be able to put something like that on,” Mr Reid said. “It probably means two people are covered to go to our next tournament, they don’t have to fund their own seat.
“We’ve got guys who have funded themselves and paid $20-30,000 over the years.
“Now they’re at the age where they’re getting married, having kids, they’ve got houses and are still committed to playing and put deaf basketball on the map.
“I think the whole experience was pretty amazing.”
Mr Reid said that the pandemic and border closures had made it extremely difficult for the squad to gather in recent years, including not attending the rescheduled 2021 Deaflympics, to take place in May 2022 in Brazil, and lacked the crucial continuity required for team sports, which was ultimately reflected in the final margin.
“We’ve literally been together twice in the last two years.
“It’s basically been 12 months since we trained and we had one training camp in 2020.”
Both sides expressed their gratitude to all the volunteers and contributors for making the occasion so memorable and hope that the fixture can be regular occasion in the years to come.
“This is a whole new board of administrators at the Pakenham District Basketball Association and for them to get on board and support the event was amazing,” Mr Roberts said.
“Without the work they put in to get this up and running, it wouldn’t have happened.”
