05/09/2026
It started with something pretty simple.
There was nowhere in Ingham where I could just go and shoot a basketball. The only court I had access to was at the school where I worked. After a hard day, I wanted somewhere to shoot around and clear my head.
That’s also where Izaiah Turner, one of my students, kept getting onto me about doing something with basketball in Ingham. He wanted somewhere to play. Somewhere local. Somewhere kids could actually access.
So I got the ball rolling.
But the reason Ingham Basketball is still here, growing, travelling and now winning games is because of people like Hayden O'Brien and Kira Turner.
Hayden has been there from the beginning and has become the face of Ingham Basketball. He has given up countless hours, weekends and so much of his own time to coach, organise, support players and keep things moving. He has gone well beyond what anyone could reasonably expect from a volunteer.
Kira is the engine behind the scenes. She brings the consistency, organisation and follow-through that keeps the association functioning day to day. A lot of what she does isn’t seen publicly, but without that work, none of this happens.
Neither of them is paid. None of us are.
They do it because they love basketball, they care about the kids, and they care about this community.
Three years on, we now have an incorporated association, representative teams travelling across North Queensland, plans for a court, and now Ingham Basketball has its first ever win.
That win belongs to a lot of people, but it means even more knowing Hayden and Kira were there from the very start and are still here, doing the work, years later.
A massive thank you to both of them. Ingham Basketball would not be what it is without them.
