Hi everyone!
For most of our community, welcome back! Obviously we have our junior domestic participants and Aussie Hoopers still to come next week, so we look forward to welcoming back almost all of our community very soon!
As we are all aware as West Australians, we are currently in the midst of a high-degree of uncertainty. Probably more so than we have faced in the past 12 months of relative stability in our state. With so many unknowns, tensions are higher with people concerned with what is ahead.
With this in mind, we are working very hard to work within the Government’s guidelines, Basketball WA recommendations, and balance these alongside the broad views and perspectives of the community. The CBA’s responsibility is to ensure we are doing the best we can to maximise the welfare of our community inside the parameters set by Government.
Importantly, CBA won’t implement anything less or more than what is required of us by Government, nor is it appropriate to provide a position on such Government requirements.
We will endeavour to work for our community to maintain the highest levels of safety and well-being alongside the constantly evolving protocols.
Across the coming months, we ask for your patience and understanding as we work through this time. No doubt there will be interruptions, delays and frustrations at different moments. However, our focus is to ensure we can balance the well-being of our members while also maximising the number of people playing the sport we all love.
Resultingly, we will be ensuring we are well versed in cleaning our benches after each game, maintaining strong sign in procedures at the door, social distancing where we can, and mask wearing by all those not vigorously exercising.
We know our games will be disrupted at different times with teams (and referees) impacted by Covid. As a result, all games that cannot proceed because of a Covid interruption will be deemed a washout (no winner or loser), with these games still counting towards finals eligibility, but no points awarded. In addition, if one team is reduced to four players, the other team will only play four on the floor at any one time (plus subs), to ensure games continue as often as possible (and as fairly as possible). We understand there is a chance this might impact standings, particularly in a washout, but our focus is ensuring our sport continues as often as we can.
Covid is not fair, so we ask for your patience and understanding.
In addition, we are currently reviewing the structure of our winter and summer season’s coming up over the next 6-9 months. Due to our continued growth, we continue to shape and mould our competitions to move with our growing needs as an association. As a result, we will have more teams playing at Melville LeisureFit centre, with a number of age groups or divisions moving across to Melville or potentially a different night. This is all part of our growth, and we appreciate change is not always ideal, but it’s important for us to keep moving forward and mounting the argument for our eventual redevelopment.
The junior clubs and our competitions staff will have more news on this as we approach the winter season, and in due course, the summer season. Our comps staff are working very hard to ensure you have the best experience possible, in what is a challenging time for everyone.
We are looking forward to a bright year for our Cougar Family.
If you have any further questions, please reach out to me directly.
Have a great weekend!
Tyrone Thwaites
Chief Executive Officer
Cockburn Basketball Association
