12/06/2026
BM Chargers Rep Experience Program year 1, thoughts.
9 months ago we put out a series of posts that asked for expressions of interest from boys and girls in the local area.
We wanted to put together teams to allow boys and girls who for whatever reason missed out on rep. Could still get that experience and that level of coaching.
‘Every kid deserves access to a coach that can change everything for them’ - BM 😉
We didn’t known what response we would get.
We wanted to provide that next level of coaching and experience for young athletes that missed out or couldn’t commit.
To our excitement, we got 5 teams. Two U12 teams, two U14 teams and one U16 team. We got 4 excellent coaches and we entered into the 4 main tournaments. Eltham-Dandenong. South East Junior Basketball Tournament, Adelaide Easter Classic and the Nunawading Tournament.
We knew it would be tough. Playing against rep sides as a group of individuals who only train together once a week.
We believed that if you truly emphasised team culture, individual habits, skill development and a nurturing environment where winning was seen as a by-product of these things, rather than the focus, winning would follow and amazing things could happen.
And amazing things did happen. Not straight away. Not all at once. But they did happen. All 4 of the boys teams beat rep teams. All 4 had nail-bitting victories where 1 shot was the difference between winning and losing (and they won). All 4 teams at some stage made it to a Semi-final… of a rep tournament. 1 team even won a rep tournament. Beating 4 rep teams in the process….
Through all of this we learnt how much effort it takes to care. To build something from the ground up. To create a reason and a belief that screams “we can do incredible things”.
And the best part was.
Winning was never the goal.
Year 2 we will be back bigger and better than before.
