Club History

 

Emerald Lakers Basketball club was formed in 1989 and commenced playing with 9 teams in the summer season of the Kilsyth Association.

Several local families developed the club including the Huisintvelds, Clares, Blacks, Fullers, Bryants and Terrys. The First club president was Kris Terry and the first coach was Kevin Terry.

The committee conceived the club name and colours from the influence of our local Emerald Lake and its beautiful surrounding forests. They also held a competition to design the club logo and the winner was Ben Bush who played for the team and attended Emerald Secondary College. The club banner, which is still used today, was designed and made by Bill Black. After one year at Kilsyth the club made the transition to Knox Amateur Basketball Association (KABA), now Knox Basketball Inc., and is still there.

In the early 90's the founding families built the club up to 32 teams.

 

 

 

In the mid 90's Gary Stephens as club president used his business experience to improve club administration. In the late 90's Fred Barton took on the role of president and, like Gary, worked tirelessly coaching and running the club. They were supported by Brett Rob and Fred Hauser as Vice President and during this period the club expanded the team numbers up to 32.

In 2002 Fred Hauser became president and remained there until 2005 supported by Charlie Borin as Vice President. Fred and Charlie worked hard on improving the relationship of the club with KABA, introduced new uniforms with the original logo, organised a professional coach with KABA's support to raise the standard of the players' skills and pursued sponsors to secure the club's solvency.

Our current President Jacqui Scanlan and Vice President Nick Sangster together with an enthusiastic committee are working very hard to ensure the club's continued success. Today the club has an equal record 32 junior teams. We are now playing in a new design uniform whichrespects the heritage of the club while reflecting the progress the club continues to make.

 

Over the years many parents have put in hours of work as coaches, team managers and committee members.