#185 The Alligators and YMCA Launceston
Long before a Jack Jumper was a franchise and when teams of the black biting ants were more likely to require an EpiPen than hoops, Launceston's YMCA provided the boards for junior basketball.
Primary school basketball was huge in the 1980s with kids introduced by a small number of teachers who held a love of the game.
This passion continues with droves of children, young people and adults taking to the courts at various clubs across Launceston, inspired by the success of the Jack Jumpers who became the first NPL franchise to make the playoffs in their inaugural season.
Basketball is the new footy with the oval ball game and, to a certain extent, the round ball game, traditionally the most popular for primary school-aged students, sitting up and taking notice of the newfound ant army.
Further, the uncertainty around a Tasmanian AFL team has allowed basketball to fill the void in a proud sporting state where support of state teams competing at the elite level in national competitions has primarily involved hockey.
But the success of the Jack Jumpers franchise is not really an overnight success.
Basketball has always been popular, although not like this.
The 1982 NBL winners Launceston Casino City, the Hobart 'Tassie' Devils, the Launceston Tornadoes, Launceston Ocelots, and the Launceston Tigers have all come and gone, apart from the Tornadoes whose following, and success, has been consistent.
These teams provided hope and energy and passion and parochialism, filling small and tightly enclosed stadiums en masse, and building a fierce home court advantage in the process.
The supporters came from schools and fledgling local clubs with parents, guardians, and family and friends dragged along with the majority far from any form of basketball background.
Long before a Jack Jumper was a franchise ... Launceston's YMCA provided the boards for junior basketball.
One of those schools was Trevallyn Primary, where basketball began in conjunction with the rise of Casino City, the allure of import players from the US and the Australian mainland who visited schools and hosted clinics delivering even more devotees.
They were as popular as yoyos.
With the top concrete surface dominated by the Kings and Queens of the courts, the grade sixes, the bottom court, with its distinctive fall to Gorge Road, taught generations of kids to lay-up. It still does.
And the place to learn these newfound skills, Launceston's YMCA with its single court, tiered bench seats for supporters and Uber drivers before their time, and baselines with minimal runoff ensuring that the games were fast, exciting and memorable with safety dependent on your ability to stop.
My team was the Alligators, perhaps picking up on the North American imports gracing our courts at the time, or perhaps not...
The complex at Kings Meadows was the home of primary school basketball. It was where we enjoyed court time before we could gain access to the Elphin Sports' Centre, and the Velodrome (now Silverdome) built in 1984.
The Silverdome cost $4 million to build in the mid-'80s, funded by the state government, delivering the first indoor velodrome in the nation, a fact often lost.
Triple Converse tube socks squeezed into Reeboks for some and SFIDA for the masses, with short shorts, school singlets, and a wrist band or two synonymous with the trend of the day.
They were great times; affordable, healthy, highly competitive and quality games where rivalries were strong, and friendships established when the adrenalin dissipated.
Sadly, and as reported in The Examiner late last week, "YMCA Launceston announced on Wednesday it would need to close its doors to its 500 members by early June if they didn't receive an urgent injection of government and council funding".
The Young Men's Christian Association opened its doors in Launceston during 1882.
In 1888 the Young Women's Christian Association was added to the organisation to broaden its ability to deliver community support, primarily providing hostel-style accommodation for young working women.
And although the YMCA had its roots as a Christian organisation, that charter has broadened dramatically in its appeal with a determined focus on inclusion.
Their website details modern service offerings including: Health, Wellbeing and Fitness, Recreation and Care, Childcare and Children's and Adult Activities.
More specifically, catering for young people and adults from a diverse range of backgrounds, the able-bodied and those requiring support, Launceston's YMCA has been an integral part of our community for 140 years.
But now the Board finds itself in trouble.
The YMCA reported a $205,000 loss in 2020 and is now overdue in reporting its finances for 2021.
Deficit, debt and struggle are the norm for many sporting and community organisations who are drip fed by councils and governments from grant to grant, with application after application and hope and optimism for election promises returning every three or four years.
YMCA Launceston needs to help itself through mapping a way out of structural deficit and debt, however we all know that they will not be able to do it alone.
The current basketball craze has its roots on the deteriorating boards at YMCA Kings Meadows.
It would be sad if this fact is not recognised by members and candidates for the federal and state seats of Bass.