Junior Domestic Competition Restart

Nunawading Basketball is excited to announce that the Junior Domestic Competition will resume from Saturday 6 November.

Thank you again to each of our MEBA and GEBC clubs for their hard work in getting the Summer ‘21/22 season up and running. Hopefully, lockdowns are now a thing of the past and we can head back towards some normality and consistency of competition.

As previously advised, the Junior Domestic Competition will resume from Saturday 6 November and go through until Saturday 18 December. The competition will then return after Christmas/School Holidays from Monday 31^ST January 2022.

Throughout the Pandemic, Nunawading Basketball has followed the advice and guidelines of the Government, Council, and Basketball Victoria.

As per the Victorian Government – Open Premises Directions for all community sport:

Spectators and participants including players, coaches, and volunteers of community sport can access both indoor and outdoor spaces within a physical recreation facility without showing vaccination status only if:

• The space is being operated only for the purpose of conducting a community sports activity;
• Only participants who are necessary to facilitate the community sporting activity such as workers and volunteers are present;

Basketball Victoria has also provided updated guidance on the current COVID rules in place for a return to basketball at GREEN-50 level including:

• Training and competition can resume with the minimum number of people required
• Vaccination requirements don’t apply to community sport however this is subject to the venue user policy. Terms of entry are dictated by the venue operator including schools, councils, and third-party entities who may choose to enforce vaccination requirements.

Nunawading Basketball has worked with the Council and its School Venues and will be following the guidelines set out by the Government, Council, and Basketball Victoria as above.

However, we must advise the following caveats to the above decision:

Whitehorse Council has mandated vaccination for people 16+ at its SPORTLINK venue.

This is due to the facility being used for purposes other than community sport. As such, any Friday night games or Sunday training at this venue will require all people 16+ to provide proof of double-vaccination to gain entry.

Whitehorse Council has advised that any club/team/person etc who uses the Nunawading Basketball Centre or any of our other venues for purposes other than community sport

(e.g. a meeting in a function room) will need to be double-vaccinated if they are 16+.

With regard to the Junior Domestic Competitions, Nunawading Basketball will be reintroducing the following rules:

• The doors to each venue will remain closed until the previous game has concluded.
• Please do not arrive more than 5 minutes prior to your game and wait outside.
• All patrons must leave immediately following their match so that the next game can enter the facility.
• All patrons (12+) must wear their face mask at all times indoors (unless they hold a valid exemption). Players may remove their masks once they take the court.
• All patrons must sign in using the QR Check-In code and show this to the COVID Marshall at the entrance to each facility.
• Until the state reaches 90% capacity (where capacity restrictions are expected to be removed) only 1 parent is permitted to enter with a player (if under 18).
• No basketballs are to be brought into the facility, with the exception of the coach who may bring in 2 basketballs for warm-up. The match ball will be selected from one of the coaches basketballs.
• For clubs using Teammo to pay their match fees, please advise your Team Manager to only pay for one weeks’ game at a time.
• Unfortunately, due to the long break between games, we have seen a 35% reduction in the number of referees available. Please be understanding that they too have had a long time away from the game and may be a bit rusty and that they are likely doing many more games in a day than usual to reduce the number of ‘solo’ games.
• As previously advised, the grading period is shorter this season and we have fixtured all games based on grades being in ‘blocks’ to increase the efficiency of our Grade Secretaries to view all teams. Once the regular season commences we will be redistributing the games around all venues.
• We have worked to finish games earlier in the day (Saturday) so that families can enjoy their summer nights. Unfortunately, the loss of Knox School until 2022 has meant we finish a timeslot later than hoped, however, this is still earlier than previous seasons. Once we can access Knox School we hope to finish Saturdays by 6:30 pm.
• There will be a zero-tolerance approach taken to abuse of any staff member. Please just enjoy being back seeing the kids running around.

The health and safety of our customers and wider community continues to be our priority.

We have an operational plan in place to ensure we reopen Nunawading Basketball Centre in a safe, practical, and responsible manner.

We are continuing to monitor Government restriction information for updates and adjustments that will impact our facility operations over the coming months and we will continue to communicate changes with you.