Efforts to restore local women’s basketball to its former glory is gaining momentum.

In recent years a group of former women’s basketball league players have remained involved in the sport during scrimmages at the Centre once weekly, but with interest and the number of participants gradually increasing, the group now hope to expand in the new year.

“We are trying to get women’s basketball back up to some level of consistency,” said Shari Scott, speaking on behalf of the group. “Up until this year we have been doing Monday night scrimmages at the Centre and the hope is that we will be able to do a 3x3 tournament in March or April.

“We want to have more numbers to make that a more viable possibility, so I am waiting to get confirmation back from a few of the gyms and some of the people for stuff we are doing in January and February.

“But the plan is to continue the weekly scrimmages on Monday at the Centre and then hopefully have some skill development and scrimmage nights at proper gyms in January and February.”

Scott is encouraged by the interest shown so far by those keen to come on board.

“We got a pretty decent response from people that were interested and from there we had six to ten open-run nights between Warwick Academy and CedarBridge Academy,” she added.

“We took a break over the summer and since September we have been at the Centre Monday nights and then we did a skill-development session at Mount St Agnes. They had a local coach run through some drills and stuff with us and then played scrimmages after that.”

Scott is especially excited to see the interest demonstrated by younger players, something she considers essential to the sustainability of the sport.

“When we came back in September we were able to get some younger girls to join us because earlier in the year it was more college age and up,” she said.

“The bulk of us are in our 30s but we were able to get some younger girls aged 14 to 16, which again is part of the idea because in order for it to be sustainable over time we need to get back to a place where younger girls are interested in the sport.

“One of the things that has always been a concern in women’s basketball is the consistency. But we have had a consistent twelve, which is good, that have come out on Mondays or to the skill sessions.

“We’re hoping to get another gym night because a bunch of the ladies can’t make Mondays, so that’s what I am waiting to hear back on now. The hope is that in January we will have Monday and something else, which again should help with the numbers that we are able to have coming out.”

Scott said the passion demonstrated by former players has been the catalyst behind the ongoing endeavour to revive the sport.

“There used to be a women’s league more than eight years ago and I think those women have always wanted to continue playing,” she added. “We had enough people to have a run at least and so it just went from there.

“At the moment we have women aged 20 to 40 and some even 50 and 60 that have come out and joined the scrimmages just because they know people that have played previously and are just looking to get back into the sport.”

For more details contact Ms Scott 504-1384.