When hoop dreams deflate

The Pakenham Warriors can’t wait for the day when the stands at the coliseum at Cardinia Life are packed with fans again. 197278. Picture: ROB CAREW

By sports editor Russell Bennett

The Pakenham Warriors should be in the early rounds of their new era in the Big V basketball competition.

Their senior women’s side – the first ever Warriors group to reach Division 1 – should be on-court proving what it can do in what would have been a history-making 2020 campaign.

But it’s not. Because of something completely out of the Warriors’ control, the sounds of the game – not to mention the passionate, boisterous crowd – have been silenced at Cardinia Life stadium as Australia battles with Covid-19.

The Warriors, their coaches, support staff, fans, friends, and families, clearly have more important issues to contend with at the moment than games of basketball.

If there’s any silver-lining to this pandemic, it’s that it’s provided real context as to what’s most important in life.

Still, that doesn’t mean the Warriors aren’t desperately hurting without the physical and emotional outlet that the game of basketball provides.

Coach Simo Pajdic was set to take the senior Warrior women from Big V’s Division 2 into Division 1 this season in what would have been uncharted territory for Pakenham’s elite basketball program.

And while he, and the rest of the Warrior family, still hold out hope of the season starting at some point this year, that seems a distant prospect.

The season was effectively put on an indefinite hold less than 48 hours before their first game was scheduled to tip off.

“Obviously it’s been postponed and we’re not allowed to have any contact with players in regards to training sessions, but we don’t want it all to go by the wayside, so to speak,” Pajdic said of his group’s hard work over the pre-season.

“We’ve got one big group that separates on the weekend, effectively, but this has thrown all of that out of whack.”

Any Big V outfit is only ever as strong as the sum of its parts, and the Warriors have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to bolster their Youth League program below the senior men’s and women’s sides.

Pakenham wants all its sides to progress up the ranks, but for now its players are restricted to their own individual workout and training programs, while practising responsible social isolation. Effectively, it’s a juggling act none of them have had to manage before.

Pajdic said he feels for those hard at work at organisations such as Basketball Victoria, the governing body of competitions including the statewide Big V.

“Through all the communication I’ve seen from Basketball Victoria, they want a season to go ahead,” he said, before adding that the signs of improvement for the Warriors were there for all to see throughout the pre-season, but now – instead of being let loose on the season proper – they’ve had to lay low.

“We were really showing great signs in the pre-season through some great performances – where we picked up some good wins and got a lot out of them, and then it was just a matter of getting to that finish line,” he said.

“In our last four-week block the focus was really all about peaking for that first game, so a lot of our planning was building up to that point. Our players were really enjoying their basketball, and then this has happened.”

At this point – like the rest of the community – those involved at the Warriors are doing their part to mitigate the community spread of the coronavirus.

“For now, we’re not running anything. We’re just feeding information to the leadership group, who are in-turn feeding it to the players,” Pajdic said.

“The players will be doing what they can to stay in basketball shape, but clearly it’s not the same as being able to get out there and train on-court with the coaches there.

“We’re trying to plan for what it all looks like moving forward, when we really don’t know, ourselves – and there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re powerless in all of this – we’re guided by the powers above. If they tell us the season’s done, then the season is done.”

Basketball Victoria chief executive Nick Honey told the Gazette exactly what sort of situation is currently facing the basketball community.

“We know the important role that sport plays throughout our community, socially and economically, as well as the benefits to being active and healthy,” he said.

“Basketball Victoria is committed to getting basketball at all levels up and operational as quickly as possible when it is deemed safe to do so.

“We are working closely with all our associations during the suspension of basketball – they are doing their best to stay operational, but our sport as a whole is under serious risk.

“Financial support is crucial to their survival, so we are advocating on behalf of our associations to government and other stakeholders to try and find a way to get through the worst of the Covid-19 crisis.”