Giants return to courts

The Giants will play in five regional Victoria tournaments this year, including Swan Hill, Wangaratta, Shepparton, Wodonga and Benalla competitions held over the next six months.The Deni teams will play their pool games tomorrow, before competing in crossover games on Sunday.This year the Giants will field nine teams, with one boys and one girls team in each age group - Under 12, U14, U16 and U18.The club will also have an U12 development team, to help prepare younger players for future seasons.Junior Giants president Bec Fitzpatrick said with 88 players registered, the club is in the strongest position it has been.“The quality of basketball at the Giants has gone up a level,” she said.“The calibre of talent we have and the development of skills that we’ve seen has got us at a point where we are competitive in most grades.“About four or five years ago we had lower numbers but now we have enough players where we have to hold try-outs for them to be picked in the playing squad for each tournament.“The committee has worked extremely hard to grow our numbers over the years and it is pleasing to see it all pay off.”The Giants have once again secured coaches for the season.This year’s coaches includes Richenda Everett (U12 Boys Development), Troy Bartlett (U12 Boys), Brendan Willoughby (U12 Girls), Ross Foran (U14 Boys), Trent O’Callaghan (U14 Girls), Matt Way (U16 Boys), Michael Everett (U16 Girls), John Allitt (U18 Boys) and Michael Harvey (U18 Girls).“The coaches give up so much of their time to coach these sides,” Fitzpatrick said.“They all volunteer, which is a huge commitment on their behalf.“Since we started training the skills have increased quite quickly, which goes to show the hard work our coaches have put in.“Without coaches the children don’t get to play, so we want to thank everyone for volunteering.”With the current upgrades at the Deniliquin Stadium, the Junior Giants have been forced to train at the Deniliquin High School.The players and coaches have utilised both the indoor court in the school’s multi-purpose centre as well as the two outdoor concrete courts.‘‘The upgrades will see our players train on two courts rather than just one, which will be amazing,’’ Fitzpatrick said.‘‘We’re grateful for the high school in allowing us to use their facilities, otherwise we don’t know where we could train, so thank you to all involved at DHS.’’The first game featuring the Giants tomorrow will be played at Swan Hill Stadium at 8am.