Determination of Our Age Divisions.

WHY OUR AGE GROUPS ARE IMPLIMENTED!

Prior to the commencement of the 2017/2018 season the EBA committee had a lot of feedback regarding players who are forced to play in divisions that see them competing against athletes who are significantly older than them due to the assigned cut off dates for each division. Research has indicated that for many athletes born late in the year, this resulted in a significant disadvantage which persevered all the way through their playing experience.

Eaton Basketball investigated what format a number of other Associations were using to determine their age groupings to see how the rest of the basketball community were attempting to address this issue for their players.

It was determined that by setting cut-off ages based on what age a player was at the end of the financial year that encompassed the season, the impact of being born late in the year is diminished. This model is used by many other Western Australian Associations and it is our view that this will result in a better playing environment for our athletes to develop.

A second major factor involved in the process was the desire to minimize the impact of some changes in game conditions for our younger divisions that were introduced in the 2017/2018 season to bring our competition in line with the rest of the state.

Finally our intent was to introduce formal Age groupings that could be clearly communicated to our members which closely resembled what the majority of Western Australian Associations but still resulted in minimal impact to our existing teams in terms of players remaining eligible to play with their peers.

What we have adopted is the best compromise of all these values that the committee could determine. We believe that this will serve our players and coaches well domestically and enable us to develop a strong presence in the carnivals that we participate in.