Above: From left … Best Team Player Tom Fraser, Most Improved Player Dylan Alcott and MVP winner Shaun Groenewegen.By Marc McGowan
THE Dandenong Rangers celebrated a successful basketball season with its annual presentation night on Sunday.
Held at the Dandenong Club, it was a chance for the Rangers to honour its top players.
The Rangers’ five elite senior teams brought home three championships – Championship Men, Youth League Division One Men and Youth League Women – as well as finishing runner-up in the Championship Women’s division and third in the Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball League.
The accomplishments were topped off by the Championship Men’s side’s run to the Australian Basketball Association national final, where it recorded a runner-up result.
The most eagerly anticipated award of the night was the most valuable player for the Championship Men’s team.
Coach Warren Dawson nominated veteran Mark Roberts, import Lester Strong and South Dragons recruits Brent Hobba and Ash Cannan as the potential winners.
Strong went in as the favourite, with his impressive statistical numbers, but it was Kalgoorlie-born Hobba, on the back of his consistent contributions, who was rewarded with the honour.
Dawson said when they sat down as a coaching group, it could have gone either way, as there were four guys whose performances over the season could have got it.
“We just felt that at critical times, when we needed to win in the big games, that Brent was the key for us. He certainly changed the dimension of the team. When he was on the floor, the game changed,” he said.
Hobba, 24, however was more interested in putting the spotlight onto his teammates.
“It’s a pleasure to play with such a good bunch of guys,” he said. “The season was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to next year.”
The Championship Women’s most valuable player (MVP) went to 25-year-old Mel Colcott, who was chuffed with her selection.
“It was unexpected. Everyone in the team did really well and there was at least four or five who could have got it,” she said.
The team-oriented star was already looking ahead to next season.
“We want to win nationals. We’ve shown ourselves that we can and that we’re up with the best of them. Hopefully next year we’ll do the work that will get us to the end,” she said.
Dwayne Campbell and Matt Witherden were co-MVPs for the Men’s Youth Team, while pint-sized guard Leanne Rutgers took out the Women’s Youth Team award.
Possibly the most impressive selection of the night was Shaun Groenewegen’s MVP win for the Men’s NWBL team – for the fifth consecutive year. The wheelchair star will now head to Europe to play in a professional wheelchair basketball league.
The story of the night, though, was the Championship Men’s team’s impressive season, after producing just one win in the first month of action. Dawson said they just sat down and each player got the chance to write down what they were going to bring to the table.
“I told them not to write something that I wanted to hear, but to write something that they were prepared to say in front of the group – ‘this is what I am going to bring, day in, day out, night in, night out’.
“I think that honest discussion was the turning point.”
