The Redbacks discovered just prior to the event that it was lifted into division one, and it was going to be a big ask for the inexperienced under 16 squad.

On Saturday, Ararat came up against a strong Hamilton team. It was a defensive game with Hamilton coming away with a 10 point win. The second game was against Warracknabeal and even though victory went the Redbacks’ way, players were still finding it hard to score.

Sunday morning’s match saw Ararat take on Horsham, who are a well drilled unit. The boys started strongly and kept up with Horsham. It had one dominate scorer in the first half so coach Donna Spalding moved DJ Woods on him to shut him down and it worked in the Redbacks’ favour. Horsham began to make mistakes that Ararat was able to score off. Redbacks hung on to victory, 31-30. 

This put the team into the semi-final against Mildura and what a match that was. Once again it was a defensive game with both teams struggling to score. There was some impressive rebounding by Cody Lindsay, Jayden Wright, Baydn Cosgriff and Scotty Cocking. Even though Ararat went down by five points (28-23) the boys showed Spalding how far they have come in six weeks.

Grand final winners at Warrnambool in division two, the under-18 Ararat Redbacks competed in division one at Horsham. It was a tough task for the team, with only four of the boys playing before this year in a tournament and others only having one tournament under their belts to date.

Although they all have the skills, playing division one is much faster and physically demanding to what the Redbacks boys are used to. However, they took it in their stride and although not winning a game for the weekend, did a fantastic job and managed to come away with their heads held high and no blow out results. 

Last weekend, the under 12 Redbacks boys play their first tournament as a team, with very few players having ever experienced anything more than the amateur under 12 basketball competition in Ararat.

The under 12 team played a total of four games, and gave 100% for every minute.

With such a newly formed team, the boys unfortunately took away no wins from the Horsham tournament. However, the last game against Portland left coach Chloe Dunmore and the boys with high hopes on future tournaments. Both coach and players could already see the huge improvement from all players over the weekend. Dunmore said this very little and new team have a huge amount of potential, and will hopefully get their first win on the board in no time.