State Schools Email 18th March – BMBA – building better players, mentoring better people

BMBA School Newsletter

Issue Number 4

Friday, 18th March, 2022

BMBA going from strength to strength

Each week at BMBA basketball we just keep achieving our goals. Our main one is to provide your students with a positive basketball experience and this week we commenced that effort with our first clinic at St Joseph’s in Elsternwick. We will be returning there on the 29th of March.

Feedback from Louise Howell at St Joseph’s was

“The two classes that had Joe today really enjoyed their time with him. He is a great promotion for your camps and club.”

We already knew that, but it’s great to get such positive feedback.

The kids at Malvern Central Primary School will soon get taste of BMBA basketball as we lock in clinics for their students before the end of this first term. Why not contact us today to book us in for a clinic for your school.

Malvern Central Primary School, book us in for clinics.

We are delighted to announce that Malvern Central Primary School have booked us in for clinics at their wonderful school before the end of this term.

Malvern Central has two campuses located on the opposite sides of the beautiful Malvern Public Gardens and has a large student body whom we are excited to meet and serve through our basketball clinics and program.

With McKinnon PS, St Joseph’s Primary School (Elsternwick) and Malvern Central now locked in for clinics and with other schools expressing interest, we are excited about how our program is evolving. This is especially so now that we have secured St Michaels Grammar for our first holiday camp in April.

Don’t let your students miss out. Make sure you book us in for a clinic with your student body as well.

Our Coaches, what they are up to.

Our two main coaches in our program are about to embark on their season proper with respective representative teams. Bob Mann, coaching his U18 Hawthorn Magic representative team and Joe Davis playing with his Pakenham BIG V Men’s team.

With each newsletter, we will keep you up to date with their progress. In doing so, you will discover the quality of the people you will be getting when they visit your school to conduct clinics for your students.

Joe starts his BIG V season this Sunday.

Our All-Star Canadian import, Joe Davis, starts his Australian basketball adventure this week when he debuts in his BIG V basketball season with the Pakenham Warriors. Through our online newsletters, we will be keeping you up to date on Joe’s progress.

Joe’s opening game is against Craigieburn this Sunday (March 20th) at Craigieburn and if his pre-season form is anything to go by he should have an outstanding season.

Joe will be a key player for Pakenham filling roles such as shotting forward, power forward and even the centre role. He will be a key scorer and rebounder in the competition.

Coach Mann leads his team into tournament semi's.

BMBA founder, Coach Bob Mann, has enjoyed significant success with his teams over the years and this continued on the Labour Day weekend. Bob led his Hawthorn Magic U18 Boys team into the semi-finals in the South East Junior Basketball Tournament over that weekend.

Despite being undermanned with only six of his ten players available, Bob’s Hawthorn Magic boys played out of their skins to win enough tight contests to make the semi-finals. In that semi-final, his U18 boys lead all game before losing a thriller on the buzzer by 2 points to a full-strength Waverley team.

Bob now has his team primed for a great season from this point onwards which is a significant effort considering he only took on the boys just before Christmas. We will follow his team’s progress through these newsletters.

Recent Updates and News

St Michael's Grammar to host our first Holiday Camp in April.

We are pleased to announce that St Michael’s Grammar will be the venue for our first school holiday for the upcoming April Holidays.

St Michael’s has outstanding facilities and the court we will be using at the school will be perfect for our first camp. We are very excited by this acquisition for the BMBA program and hope this is the beginning of many great relationships with a host of schools for the BMBA basketball program.

For full details on our camp CLICK HERE.

McKinnon Primary School Book us in for June.

McKinnon Primary School have been the first school to book us in for a FREE CLINIC for their school and students. Joe Davis, our Canadian import will be visiting McKinnon Primary School in early June for a week, conducting coaching clinics for each year level.

While there, Joe will also be educating kids about the BMBA program and what we have to offer them if they share our passion for the sport of basketball. Joe will give the McKinnon Primary School students some drills, show them some skills and provide plenty of entertainment and fun.

Last week we paid Dylan Hislop a visit. Dylan arranged the clinic for us in June at the school and we wanted to introduce him to Joe and to say thank you for his efforts. We are looking forward to these clinics at McKinnon Primary School with some excitement and anticipation as we begin our Schools Program journey.

If you would like Joe to visit your school contact him via his email development@bmba.net.au or contact him via his mobile 0480 305 761.

Alternatively. you can contact Bob Mann via his email bob_mann@bmba.net.au or through his mobile 0490 823 400.

St Joseph's Elsternwick locks in Joe

St Joseph’s Primary School in Elsternwick have also locked us in for a Clinic on March 16th. The fortunate students at St Joseph’s will enjoy access to Joe for some drills, skills and fun thanks to sports Teacher Louise Howell.

St Joseph’s is located ideally close to St Michael’s Grammar so St Joseph’s students have an opportunity to have a taste of Joe’s talents via this clinic and then through our holiday camp at St Michael’s Grammar.

St Joseph’s actually has basketball-crazy kids formed into teams that are playing in after schools competitions. So they will really enjoy the opportunity of a FREE clinic at their school through the BMBA schools program.

We have more schools that have indicated an interest in locking in some clinics, so make sure your school doesn’t miss out and BOOK US IN TODAY!

Check out our Camp Promo Video

Can you help promote our camp?

The only way we can provide our services for FREE to schools during school terms is to conduct successful holiday camps. If you can assist in this effort then we can come out to your school to conduct FREE clinics during future school terms.

If you could help us out by placing a camp poster on notice boards at your school or via your school website or newsletter, it would be greatly appreciated. We have a jpeg file you could include on a website or in an email newsletter. Simply right-click on the image and then click on “save image as” to download this jpeg file.

Alternatively, you can CLICK HERE to download a PDF version of the flyer for notice boards etc!

If you need anything else, such as a smaller sized image or a different type of flyer, simply contact us o let us know and we will arrange it. Anything you can do to assist will be greatly appreciated and help us get to your school to run a FREE clinic for your students.

Community Through Hoops Program.

At BMBA basketball we are not just about building better players, we also want to mentor better people.

We will be implementing this through our “Communities through Hoops program” for State schools and our “Christianity through Hoops” for Catholic Schools.

The purpose of both programs is the same and is covered in our program’s emblem explained below. The way we implement and conduct our programs wants to reflect age-old values that we believe are just as important in these modern times and moving into the future. Through our love of sport and in a subtle way we want to embed within our players a sense of honesty, respect, honour and dignity in the way they conduct themselves. We believe sport is an ideal vehicle for this.

Why the Templars?

We chose the Templars as we believe some values are eternal.

We don’t just want our symbol/mascot to project strength and tenacity, we want it to be something that defines our culture and the values we want to embed amongst our participants and players.

While the Templar Knights were fierce Medieval Warriors, they also lived by a code of honour, respect, courage and they dedicated their lives to self-sacrifice in the pursuit of servitude towards others.

We believe that this represents the culture we want to build within our program perfectly.

Younger Kids

We do our best to group participants to match their ages and abilities as much as possible. This ensures the kids obtain as much enjoyment as possible from their time with us. Generally, for younger kids, the emphasis is as much on having some fun while being taught some new skills to use in their domestic games or programs.

In teaching these skills we do so as much as possible through drill formats with the kids in teams and engaging in competitive drills with plenty of encouragement and with more emphasis on attempting to use their newly taught skills as on winning.

Older Kids

For our older groups, we teach them more through simulated match situations and scrimmage games. Drills are still used but with the mindset of using these drills to develop skills for games situations and then putting them into those game situations.

While still focusing on enjoyment and fun, older participants are normally looking for more challenging training and coaching with a greater emphasis on competition and challenges with the skills being taught.

Girls

Our training is designed for both boys and girls. Where numbers permit we organise girls into “girl only” groups which make things more enjoyable for the girls. We also design different skills challenges for the girl’s groups.

In the unusual event (especially in the older groups) that a girl or girls would prefer to join in with the boys, we would look at that situation where capabilities permit it.

Boys

Of course, our training is open for boys as well. As with the girls, we look to form them into boys-only groups. This again is dependent on the number of enrolments we have.

These groups are sorted along both age and capability lines as well as keeping kids in their friendship groups where possible. Most importantly, as best as possible we place participants in groups where they are comfortable with their current skill level and where they can obtain the most enjoyment from their participation in the BMBA program.

For the more motivated

We also have groups for those players who are more motivated and wish to obtain more serious training to improve their game. We can either form them into a separate group or embed them in a group and simply provide them with more challenging drills and skills for them to use and learn from.

They will receive condensed high-level coaching and drills that will challenge them and help them improve their current skills considerably or learn new ones for future games and opportunities.

Our Coaches

Our Coaches are predominately players Bob has brought through with him via his caching career. They all have predominately graduated through Bob’s representative basketball programs. We also recruit coaches from Universities and schools who have either played or coached at a high level. All our coaches are trained in the drills and basketball programs that we implement and are supervised through all our sessions. Naturally, all of them will have to obtain and provide Working with Children Checks to be able to work with us, where they are old enough to have one.

Our Venues

At the moment we operate from outdoor school courts due to Covid-19, but we are now working to secure an indoor court now that schools have reopened from lockdowns.

We are looking for a venue in the South East Suburbs of Melbourne, preferably within the boundaries of the cities of Glen Eira, Bayside or Kingston.

If your school fits that bill and wants to help us have kids in our community become involved in a positive recreation and program while making some revenue for your school, then contact us to discuss the possibilities.

Book a clinic today!

We are now ready and willing to go. So book us in to visit your school to promote our sport, our program and the possibilities we can present for many of your students.

CLICK HERE to contact us today to book us into a visit to your school.