2015/16 ORMOND JETS’ PRESIDENT’s REPORT

The last 12 months has seen another hectic but very satisfying year for the JETS. With an amazing 89 teams this Summer Season, up 15 teams from Winter Season, it takes a lot of time and effort of volunteers to run the club. We are lucky to have a fantastic committee, who have a lot of enthusiasm and positive energy to give, and I would like to thank them personally for another successful year of basketball at the JETS.

I do wish to single out two people however: Nava Ashurst; who works tirelessly running the club day in day out and Darren Gillman; who has the key role of Treasurer and the thankless job of Code of Conduct Officer. Both Nava and Darren are also Age group Coordinators in their ‘spare time’. Darren has the largest single group in the club: Under 13 Boys.

I also wish to thank the parents who have stepped up as coaches and team managers over the last 12 months. Without your help, we could not successfully run the teams and our club.

With the addition of the JETS Diamonds Over 30 Women last season, we have teams entered in all of the MBA Junior and Senior competitions; quite an achievement; and are now easily the second biggest domestic club in the MBA; second only to the Lakers. The JETS also now have a significant number of kids playing Representative basketball for the McKinnon Cougars, and a few also with the Melbourne Tigers. Please contact a committee member if you wish to know more about Rep basketball. It is the pathway to higher level basketball.

COACHING
My main objectives for the club this year have been to improve the skill level of our players in all grades, and to improve the skills and knowledge of the coaches right across the club. We were without a Coaching Director for quite some time in 2016, with Nathan Geer progressing his own career with the MBA and the Girls Basketball Academy. In July we advertised with Basketball Victoria and were fortunate enough to have 4 excellent applications, all with international experience. Shay Sidelman (coincidentally already a JETS Dad / coach), was the successful applicant. Shay has considerable experience, a drive to improve the level of basketball in Australia, and an obvious passion for the JETS. Shay’s key objectives as Coaching Director reflect those of the club already mentioned.

Shay has run a number of workshops for coaches over the last 3 months and will continue building on these into the foreseeable future. Shay also intends to build relationships with each of the coaches; but with 60+ coaches that would take a lot of time. We are therefore asking the coaches to get involved, to help themselves and the club by become better educated in basketball coaching and making use of Shay’s knowledge and experience. I have also recently re-inforced to the coaches that they also have a extremely important responsibility as positive role models to our players, passing on life skills not just basketball. Inappropriate behaviour, conduct and language are also not acceptable.

Many of you will be aware that we have gone out to the market this season to engage a number of paid coaches. This is a first for the JETS. The committee agreed with me that the focus for these coaches needed to be the younger ages; specifically Under 9/10 boys and girls; where they are new to the game and need to learn the basic skills. Due to difficulty finding coaches, we have had to extend these paid coaches to other age groups as well. Undoubtedly, we have had some teething problems, as you do with any new process, and I ask that the parents please bear with us as we work through these problems; however in the main this has been very successful. The committee will review this initiative in the New Year and determine what we take forward from the experience. A key question obviously is how we fund these coaches, as the club is wearing the cost this season; If we continue down this path, we will need to look into additional revenue streams to do so. One of the other key coaching requirements is that we develop parents and/or younger coaches to take on roles as assistants and potential future coaches. We will be reviewing our overall coaching model in the New Year and ongoing.

I’d also like to again pass on my congratulations to the two winners of the Tony Rogers’ Coach of the Season this year : Jim Callaghan (Under 18 boys Summer 15/16) and Amir Perzuck (Under 11/13 Girls Winter 16). They were both worthy winners and truly reflect the values of our club.

TRAINING
The JETS’ scarcest resource is fortunately not willing helpers or members, but court space to train our teams. We rely on an allocation of courts from the MBA and then whatever courts we are able to sources ourselves. Up until now, we have been lucky enough to have sufficient training space for our teams; however with the loss of Glen Eira College due to renovations for most likely 12 months, and the rapid increase in JETS’ teams, this has been an enormous issue for us. I highlighted my concern at the Winter Presentation, but I have to admit this has been even tougher than expected. We had to look far afield to Oakleigh Rec to get a night, and now also rely on Caulfield Rec (YMCA); a smaller space without lines. Fortunately for us, as a result of the issues within the Oakleigh Warriors we were able to secure Thursday night at GESAC, hopefully until the end of this season, although not guaranteed. Once again I ask that our members please bear us as we work our way through these issues. The training roster is probably the most complex task we have to undertake and it is impossible to please everyone.

CODE OF CONDUCT
I mentioned the role of Code of Conduct Officer earlier. Sadly this is on our committee’s agenda nearly every meeting. It is more and more important that coaches, parents and children follow these codes. It is too easy to forget that this it is a game and it is kid’s basketball. It is not the NBA nor the NBL. Respect for all the volunteers, the opposition players and parents and particularly the referees is paramount. Our performance as a club is reflected by our behaviour, our sportsmanship and our code of conduct; on and off the court.

CLUB PHILOSOPHIES
We are a community sporting club, run by volunteers and striving to satisfy everyone in our club. Our club motto / priority centres around Friendship and Fun. We try to be conscious of existing friendships when we put together teams together, however it is not always possible to keep groups of friends together, particularly as players grow and develop different at rates, and have different requirements from the game. We want all our members to enjoy playing this great game, to have fun together, and as a result, make life time friendships. Everyone has a part to play and has the opportunity to contribute to our success as a club.

Our mantra is that kids get equal time. We are not a representative competition, where kids and parents sign an agreement that time on the court is not guaranteed, and needs to be earned. Obviously not being the NBA, the coach cannot stop play whenever he or she likes, so quite often there will be slightly more minutes for some; however these should even out over the season. The club’s rule is that every boy and girl should be getting fair and reasonable time on the court. The coaches are aware of this. Please let me or coordinator know if you have issues in this regard. If we are not made aware of issues then we cannot help you.

SOCIAL
The committee has put a lot of effort into our improving Presentation days recently; holding them at Packer Park and most recently Duncan McKinnon Reserve. Presentation days provide a rare opportunity to get together as a larger forum. We will continue to strive to make presentations an enjoyable time; where we can get together and have fun as a larger group. We welcome your ideas and feedback (good and bad) to your coordinator / committee member; or direct to me if you wish.

We will continue to use and push Team App as our method of communication; I realise that it comes with some intricacies in the ever expanding world of social media. Having mistakenly sent a team message to the whole club very recently, I know that it can be problematic if not used with real care. As a committee we will streamline our use of Team App as much as possible. However please continue to embrace the technology. It helps establish the club as a leader among our peers.

SUMMARY
Finally, we are very fortunate, having the committee, parents and over 700 members that we do. I look forward to successfully meeting the challenges and the opportunities that present themselves in the upcoming year.

I trust you have a happy and safe holiday period. Enjoy the extended break from basketball. See you in the New Year.

GO JETS

Peter Wilkins
President Ormond JETS