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WARRNAMBOOL Mermaids are out to win three titles in three divisions in three seasons after earning promotion to the Big V’s top tier.
The Mermaids will play in the championship grade in 2019 following a restructure of basketball in Victoria.
A shake-up following the demise of the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) and development of a new Basketball Victoria elite league, which is yet to be named, has filtered down to the Big V competition.
Warrnambool Seahawks and Mermaids president Jacob Sobey said Basketball Victoria would run both competitions.
The Mermaids, who won the division two crown in 2017 and division one title in 2018, were deemed worthy of a championship grade berth.
“There’s just been a big restructure with the league with Basketball Australia not taking on the SEABL going forward,” Sobey said.
“Basketball Victoria has taken on the Victorian teams and started an elite competition for men and women where they’re adopting all of those Victorian (SEABL) teams and the top (Big V) championship teams.
“The girls winning last season under the promotion rules were made to go up.
“It was not something we’d intended for but it’s a great opportunity for them. It will be a similar competition to division one this year.
“It’s probably going to be the lower tier teams of championship (grade) as well as the top teams this year going up from division one.
“It will be a good opportunity for them to challenge themselves at that next level.”
Louise Brown, who has led the Mermaids to back-to-back titles following their three-year hiatus, will coach for a third season. Tim Gainey has accepted the Seahawks’ division one men’s role for a second straight year.
Sobey said Brown was determined to help the Mermaids shine in the championship grade.
“I think she was reluctant to start with with regards to why it happened,” he said.
“But I’ve explained to her that it is one of those things – winning comes with results and one of those results is being promoted.
“They are just the rules of operation and we respect them, so we’ll take it under our belt and get ready to hopefully win a three-peat in all three divisions.”
Sobey said the committee was rapt to appoint Brown and Gainey for the 2019 season.
“It was a very comfortable decision and we were quite happy with how they performed, not just on the court but their contributions to basketball off the court as well,” he said of last season.
“Tim is a great contributor, not just to Warrnambool but the south-west, and Louise has her hand in everything. Credit to her, she helps out on so many levels from juniors all the way up to the senior programs.”