Hi everyone,

We start training and games this coming week so very exciting.

Games

Don't forget you all need Rockets shorts to play. Shorts are compulsory to play, maybe not the first week but after the first week the team will be deducted five points for every child that doesn’t have the correct shorts. You should also have a basketball and you can buy one from us if you need one they are only $15 - U8,10,14 have a size 5, U14 and all girls are size 6 and U16 and above boys are size 7.

You can purchase everything online and pick them up at Runcorn at training or anytime at Eight Mile Plains just send an email or text on 0421644160. The games will come out on Wednesday, and we will inform you of how to find that information. For the first 4 weeks the games come out weekly then it should be for the entire season.

Team allocations.

Most people should have their allocation by now – the u10 are just finishing (training for you is at Runcorn State High School and please choose a day that suits – Monday 4:30 – 5:30 or Wednesday 4:30 – 5:30 or Friday 4-5. Train only will receive their training location and time probably on Monday.

If you have not received anything yet, it may be due to the email address you used maybe a work one or your child's and it has gone to that address or an error in the email address or it has gone to your junk. Yesterday alone I receive 19 requests about games and all of them the email was either incorrectly inputted or they put their child’s email address. In almost every case we had to pay our external IT person to investigate which is money we could use for your children.

We only use the information that is supplied to us, and it is an automated process going from Basketball Connect into our system .

Almost everyone has been very accommodating, and we thank you very much. Not having Calamvale has put a lot of pressure on our coordinators so your patience and understanding is very much appreciated.

During grading there may be some boys and girls that may change teams because they’re not suited at that division, hopefully this will only be a minimum. A lot of things are out of our control such as game times, location of training, who coaches what teams etc but we do our very best to help and accommodate each and everyone of you. In some cases, it is just not possible and I am very sorry for that.

Background and this season

We did have discussions about what we should do with Calamvale not available this term. When I took over 7 years ago, we had all our teams training at Runcorn and our membership was 169. As of yesterday, we had just over 650 registered members for this season. Had we gone down the path of only training at Runcorn this season which we did consider, 480 children would not be playing. All the other clubs in our association I believe are full or close to it so all those children would have nowhere to go.

Don’t forget to bring a smile and plenty of energy to both training and games.

Mark Smith

Club President

Runcorn Rockets Basketball