Dear Members and Extended Family,

Being the first correspondence as President I’d like to take the opportunity on behalf of the executive to thank all of our members, coaches, managers, officials, volunteers and supporters who have returned after the forced extended break due to the current pandemic. The executive would especially like to thank the small band of volunteers within all of the clubs for their tireless hard work and effort with coordinating all of your members into club teams, identifying coaches and managers for each team, and the never ending correspondence and the logistics involved to make it happen. It is a thankless job and we’d encourage all club members, parents, and supporters to get behind your club committees and offer your assistance to the handful of volunteers whose hard work grants your child the opportunity to play this great sport. A special thanks to all the executives and volunteers at Magpies, Renegades, Souths, North Mackay Magic, Bobcats, The Whitsunday Anglican School, and Cape Gloucester Thunder Basketball Club.

I’d also like to thank the staff on behalf of the executive for their efforts over the last 5 months to get to where we are now. They have remained motivated and have worked hard during this difficult period on the Job Keeper allowance. I thank them for their resolve during this period as they have had plenty asked of them from the executive, not to mention the countless reviews that have been conducted and instructions given.

Currently we have had 7 rounds of senior fixtures and 6 rounds of juniors including the two grading weekends. As most of you are aware by now we have implemented a host of changes since the last season that was brought to a sudden halt on grand final week.

All changes implemented have been made to hopefully assist our competitions on making them fair, especially for our domestic players. We have tightened the representative rule slightly to ensure competitions are as even as they possibly can be. To be able to enforce these changes our age groups were changed to the odd numbers they now are.

We also have tried to address issues with our youngest age groups, which have seen a decline in numbers over several seasons. We would like to eventually be able to have same sex competitions in the under 9 and under 7 age groups. Mixed competitions can see a huge disparity, with boys tending to dominate which often leads to the more tentative girls dropping out. We also have reduced the number of children allowed on the court from 5 to 4 per team. Playing 4 on 4 in this age group should allow for increased opportunities for skill development. Unfortunately our numbers are still not strong in these younger age groups so if you know of any children who are looking to have some fun playing our great game please give the staff a call at the stadium. Our ultimate goal is to conduct an under 7 competition moving forward but work still needs to be done to allow this to happen

We also changed the payment structure, going to an upfront payment system as is used in other associations and sports to eliminate the work load on clubs.

During our extended closure, we also asked our staff to find out how we as an association compare in terms of costings to the other associations around Queensland. From an executive perspective it was pleasuring to see the Mackay Basketball Association was the 4th cheapest in the State for juniors and 8th for senior members.

As you would imagine the four and half months without income has affected our finances. The introduction of the upfront payment system has been a godsend in terms of cash flow, but we will still have to be very careful moving forward as this income has to last until April 2020 (7 ½ months).  Another shut out due to Covid-19 would definitely result in the association having to go into debt to stay afloat.

For your information, to insure our facility costs $7,322 per month, throw in the monthly power and rates component and we have expenses over $10,000 per month alone, even when our doors are closed. So it’s extremely important we continue to work hard to ensure we are doing everything we can to stay profitable in these changing times.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Erin Gorman and Chantal Thomas for taking on our referee co-coordinator roles, and for the work they‘ve put in. I personally had to referee three grading games as we were short on numbers and it’s a challenging and tough job. My hat goes off to our junior and senior referees who officiate all of our competitions. I’d urge everybody to keep in mind they are all human and like ourselves they make mistakes and get decisions wrong. As parents and supporters on the sidelines I would urge everyone to be very cautious and be respectful when expressing yourself. As for our coaches and players please remember to continue to conduct yourselves respectfully, and channel your energy towards what you can control and not what you can’t

I’d strongly encourage anyone who is interested in becoming an official (referee/ score bench) to please get in contact with our coordinators and join the ranks and in what is a very rewarding and important job within our association, not to mention earning a little money along the way.

I also would like to welcome back the popular ‘Ready Steady Go’ which hires our venue during the week, as well as Futsal Mackay and Mackay Netball who both hire our facility weekly to conduct their competitions. Like everyone in the community we’ve got our fingers crossed we can eventually have restrictions lifted and return to normal, allowing us to even more hiring of our great facility, but one step at a time.

This week we will be hosting the under 14 Girls state titles here at our McDonald’s Mackay Multi-Sports Stadium starting on Friday October 2 to Monday October 5. I’d encourage everyone who can come down, to purchase tickets on line and cheer our three teams on as they strive to compete with the best from around the state, remembering seating numbers will be restricted due to COVID-19.

The ConocoPhillips Central Queensland Cup then commences with our first home game at McDonald’s Stadium on Saturday the 17th October. This is a short 8-week competition where our McDonald’s Mackay Meteors and Global Product Search Meteorettes will take on Bundaberg, Gladstone, and Rockhampton for supremacy of Central Queensland.

The association has also been able to secure in 2022, the Primary School Boys and Girls State Titles here in August, the Queensland Independent Secondary Schools Netball (QISSN) championships, and the State cheerleading Titles as well. This is a huge win for the Association moving forward and on behalf of the executive we like to thank our staff, especially our CEO Jason Borg for all of their hard work in bringing these events here to Mackay. I’m sure you’d agree it is a big coup for not only our association, but our region to be hosting these events.

Currently we’re  getting draft plans drawn up to develop the old outside courts, with multiple basketball systems on all sides of the courts for our members to practice and train on, and the staff have been applying  for a variety of grants to assist with this.

I hope everyone has had a chance to check out the new grandstand now that it is completed. To have a grandstand of its size is a huge asset for our association and our corporate partners who will be able to use the new boxes on game nights. The grand opening was held on the 5th of September. A special thank you to Joel Khalu for all of his hard work in coordinating the evening and to the small band of volunteers who went above and beyond the call of duty in working that weekend. The grandstand also contains our very own First Aid/Medical Room. Our referees will now also have their own room for training and development as well as a place to rest between games and store their belongings. There is a merchandise room, another bar and most importantly a large storage room in which will hopefully allow us to declutter some areas within the complex moving forward.

I’m sure some of these photos from yester year will bring back some fond memories for some of you. Next year, 2021 will mark the 60th anniversary of the Mackay Basketball Association. I too can’t believe it, it only seems like yesterday we were all together celebrating the association’s 50th. On that note I’d like to invite all past and current members, life members, and those in our extended basketball family to a presentation on Thursday the 15th October at 5:30pm in the meeting room at McDonalds Stadium. The evening will give a brief insight into how we currently sit as an association, our goals and strategies we will be endeavoring to implement into the future and the challenges that lie ahead. I would encourage as many people as possible to attend, especially those how are looking for an exciting interest into the future. Remembering this great facility and our rich history as an association doesn’t belong to any one individual, but is a result of what is soon to be 60 years of hard work and efforts of many individuals who can be very proud of the role they have played in shaping the association into the place it is today, so please make the effort.

The executive would also like to wish those junior representative teams completing at State Championships these holidays all the best. It is a huge commitment of time and effort and not to mention money for coaches, players, managers, and parents. I’m confident they’ll do us proud on and off the court and we wish them well.

Lastly on a sad note, during this period we have seen the passing of two of our Life members Jean Holland and Brian Fawcett. Jean and Brian will be sadly missed and their contributions never forgotten. Our deepest condolences to the families of both Jean and Brian.

Warm regards,

Guy Simpson

PRESIDENT | MACKAY BASKETBALL INC.