This year we celebrated 25 years since our foundation. Its an honour to be involved with a club who has such a rich history and I would like to thank everyone for their support, commitment and contribution over the past 12 months.

In our 25^th year, we celebrated by providing all registered players in the Winter 2018 season a brand new warm-up supplied to every athlete at no charge thanks to our tireless committee and also with the help of our top sponsors – Werribee Steel and Italia Pizza. We also held a cocktail party for our members at the Views, which was an awesome chance for our committee, coaches, parents and supporters to kick up their heels and celebrate all things Corpus. We also welcomed Gary Kennedy back to the club he started 25 years ago and marveled at hearing first hand of the founding of Corpus.

2018 was the year that Corpus Christi Basketball Club really strengthened our position as one of the leading clubs in the Werribee Basketball Association. After growing at the staggering rate of 49% in 2017, Corpus has grown from 32 teams in the Winter 2017 season to 46 teams in the Summer 2019 season, representing a massive 44% growth!

We continue to be at the forefront of female competition. We have 128 current registered female players (28% growth in the last 12 months) which represents 38% of our total players. As a result of our commitment to growing the female program, in the under 8 competition, we have two teams out of 6, in Under 20’s competition we have two teams out of 7. I’m really proud of our ability to continue to attract female athletes to the club and would like to thank all our exceptional coaches involved in our female program.

Our male program has also experienced significant growth at all levels, with now over 215 male athletes registered with Corpus. In particular in u18’s and u20’s, we have seen massive growth and we now field 5 under 18 boys teams and 1 under 20’s team.

Corpus have some of the best coaches in the competition, with our roster of talented individuals continuing to grow and invest their time in developing both awesome athletes but also our future leaders. I constantly receive feedback from other clubs, coaches and the WBA on the quality of our coaches. Thankyou. We must continue to invest in the providing development opportunities for our coaches and also provide pathways for new coaches to enter our ranks.

Sponsors play a massive role in supporting grass roots sport and Corpus are fortunate to have such amazing supporters who assist us with providing our members with opportunity and financial backing. Your support is greatly appreciated and in particular I would like to personally thank Mitch from Madok Homes, Rob & Marco from Werribee Steel and Rob from Werribee Italia Pizza. There are many other businesses that continue to support with things such as raffle prizes, player sponsorships and cash contributions for events such as our annual Break up party. If you have business connections, or are to assist the club in any way, I would encourage you to get involved. Sponsors help us to keep our fee’s low and the benefits to our members high!

Personally I would like to thank every member of the 2018 Corpus Committee who have dedicated a huge amount of time and energy to ensure we pay our bills, provide uniforms/equipment to our members, negotiate agreements with training venues/suppliers and providers, purchase items for and manage events, manage all registrations/disputes and communication, manage our financial position/resources and give up huge amounts of time selflessly for the benefit of others. It has been an honour to lead such a great group of people and the club forever in debt for your service/contribution.

As we enter our 26^th year since foundation, we have created a number of new roles on our 2019 committee to ensure we have the resources, skills and equipment to cater for continued growth in membership numbers and also tap into the brain power and business connections of our members. If you are keen to be involved in a progressive club and have skills/experience/ideas that could benefit the club, we would love to see you put up your hand and help make a difference.

 

Key Statistics

• Female members 38% and male 62% (WBA Average for female participation is 21%)
• Summer 2018 – 243 registered players to Summer 2019 – 348 registered players (43% increase over 2 seasons)
• Teams have increased from 32 in Winter 2017 to 46 in Summer 2019
• Corpus launched our first women’s team in the Summer 2019 Season