COVID Restrictions & Return to Play Update
We hope everyone has been able to keep fit and well over the recent circuit-breaker lockdown.
Like you, we were initially buoyed by announcements yesterday about the potential return of community sport this weekend.
However, regrettably, the revised Return to Sport guidelines from BV, which reflect the current Victorian Government density limits for indoor sports venues, make it impossible for us to schedule games this weekend.
We utilize 20 courts across 10 different venues for our Winter Junior Domestic competition and our main venue supplier, Boroondara Sports Complex, has today advised all third-party users that access will not be possible given the strict 50-person maximum allowed in the venue at any one time.
Given this, it makes it impossible for us to stage our Saturday competition which in total involves 504 teams playing 248 games each weekend.
Accordingly, all Junior Domestic games scheduled for Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 June will be cancelled.
Understandably this is a disappointing outcome for our junior players, however with the upcoming school holidays, we can be hopeful of a return to ‘normal’ COVID-safe operations by our fixtured resumption date on Saturday 17 July.
Additionally, Junior Magic training scheduled for Sunday 20 June has also been cancelled due to a lack of venue availability. The Basketball Hawthorn administration team is working extremely hard to investigate training opportunities for the teams during the week. We remain hopeful that the state government may relax venue density limits by next week, as it now has in regional Victoria.
On a positive note, by following the revised Return to Sport guidelines from BV, we will be able to conduct the Senior Domestic competition finals which are scheduled to commence this week. This is because our Senior Domestic competition involves far fewer participants, few spectators and does not utilize as many venues.
The health & wellbeing of all our members, participants, volunteers and staff, is of the highest priority. Basketball Hawthorn will continue to follow advice from Basketball Victoria and the relevant health authorities to ensure we are able to bounce back as swiftly and safely as possible as soon as we are able.
We will be sure to keep you updated as circumstances change.
