2022/23 Summer Season registration is Closed

Hello Huntingtower Heat Community,

Registrations for the Summer 2022-2023 season of basketball competition are now open for 2 weeks until the end of July!

Note: There is important information in this email. By submitting the registration form you are acknowledging and accepting the information contained within this email. 

Basketball Competition

We field mixed and girls-only teams in U8 and U10, and boys-only and girls-only teams in the U12, U14, U16, and U18 sections. Basketball registration with Huntingtower Heat is a commitment to play competition games on Saturdays (or midweek) and to attend weekly training throughout the season. You will play in a team in the youngest age group that is suitable for your age.

FYI Huntingtower Heat is not a basketball skills/training facility. Don’t register if you are just looking for skills training!

Registration

Click here to register: Saturday Summer Registration

Important notes:

1. Competition games are on Saturdays. If you are wanting to enter a midweek team (Monday for girls, Friday for boys) please contact us before registering. Do not use the Saturday link above.
2. Be generous with your training availability. Please don’t have just one hour a week available, as this isn’t fair on the rest of your team.
3. If you want to play in a team with your friends, please fill out their full name/s in the registration form clearly. And make sure they register!
4. Warning: your friends may be in a different age group to you in the new season, so check with them first to avoid disappointment.
5. To play an age group in Summer competition, you must be under the age group’s age on the 30^th June 2022. For example, to qualify for U10 you must have been 9 years old or younger on 30^th June 2022 – the end of last month.

Uniforms

You are required to purchase and wear a Heat uniform at training and at games. The singlet number must be approved and allocated by our uniform co-ordinator, and be advised that you will need to pay for a second new uniform if you accidentally order one with a singlet # clash in your age group.

To be allocated a singlet number, please contact us before ordering a uniform.

Team Selection

Team selection considers a wide range of factors including player ages, basketball experience and skills, team fit, friendship groups and training requests. It is a complex process that takes days of effort to complete. Change requests from parents are inevitable, but even seemingly simple requests require in depth review of many details to make sure that issues are not introduced.

To support and simplify this process, we are introducing a 2-week “Change request phase” after the draft team lists are published. During this phase, critical requests can be made to the selectors, such as changes to training availability since registration. Each request will be considered individually on its merits relating to the individuals, the coaches, and the teams involved. Please consider carefully whether your request is worth the impact on the committee volunteers who dedicate hours of their personal time to get each season up and running.

Here are the key stages:

1. Registration – for 2 weeks starting now, until the end of July
2. First selectors’ phase – 2 weeks after registration closes
3. Draft teams published – mid August
4. Change request phase – 2 weeks from draft publishing
5. Second selectors’ phase – 1 further week
6. Final teams published – around the beginning of September

For more details on selection please see our website.

Season Dates

The season starts Round 1 October 8th with the last game of the regular season being Round 17 on March 18^th 2023. The Finals are on March 25^th and April 1^st.

Training is held every week except on public holidays or when the Huntingtower school is closed. Competition games are also held weekly, but there are no games over the New Year holiday break.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Round 1: October 8^th 2022
• Melbourne Cup: No games or training from Saturday 29^th October to Tuesday 1^st November 2022
• Last game before holidays: Saturday 17^th December 2022
• School Holidays: No games or training from Monday 19^th December 2022 to Monday 30^th January 2023
• First game back: 4^th February 2023
• Labour Day: No training Monday 13^th March 2023
• Round 17 (last game of the regular season): 18^th March 2023
• Elimination Final: 25^th March 2023
• Grand Final: 1^st April 2023

Team Role – Coach

We have experienced coaches available to coach most teams, but inevitably some teams will need a parent volunteer to fill this important role.

I know from personal experience that volunteering to coach your child’s team:

1. Requires just a small time commitment plus a bunch of enthusiasm
2. Does not require much basketball knowledge, can be learned easily
3. Is a wonderful experience that you and your child will value for many years to come

All coaches are well supported with equipment, training, and mentoring from our Head Coach, the coaching team, and the committee.

Team Role – Team Manager

Every team must have a team manager. This is a parent volunteer whose job is to coordinate the team through the season. No basketball knowledge is required, and the duties are simply:

1. Ensure that each player is prepared for the season (uniform and singlet numbers)
2. Update the team with game details every week
3. Assist with organising fill-ins when necessary (rare)
4. Pass on club communications to the team

Team Managers are ably supported by the Team Manager Liaison who can answer any questions you or your team may have. The PlayHQ portal includes tools to make this an easy job.

Team Training

Training is compulsory and runs for just 1 hour per week. Sessions include some time working on individual basketball skills (especially for the youngest teams) but mostly focus on whole team activities. If you want to seriously improve at basketball, we recommend attending skills training separately from the team training.

Parent supervision of your child at training and at games is also compulsory – COVID rules apply of course. A supervision roster will be organised by your Team Manager.

The training time for your team is communicated to you on the team list for the season. Training is held at the Huntingtower Senior or Junior gymnasiums and could start from 4-8pm on any weekday except Friday.

Here is a guide to the training times by age group. We try our best to avoid times where you tell us cannot train, but we must match times when the coach and the majority of the team are available:

• U8s start at 4pm or 5pm
• U10s tend to start at 5pm or 6pm
• U12s tend to start at 6pm or 7pm
• U14s tend to start between 6pm & 8pm
• U16s tend to start at 7pm or 8pm
• U18s tend to start at 8pm

All players must attend every training session, and must supply their own ball for the training sessions:

• U8 and U10 players use a size 5 ball (girls and boys)
• Girls players U12 & older use a size 6 ball
• Boys players  U12 & U14 use a size 6 ball
• Boys players U16 & U18 use a size 7 ball

Team Games

Games are compulsory and teams that forfeit games due to lack of numbers will be fined by the Association ($120.00 per team). 

Replacement players do not happen by magic, so please, if you cannot attend a game for any reason, advise your Team Manager ASAP so that they can organise a fill-in player. 

Games are not scheduled at a single time or location every week. Your Team Manager will advise of the game details every week. Games could be scheduled:

• U8 – From 8am and will finish by 10am
• U10 – From 8am but could start as late as 1pm
• X12 – From 8:45am but could start as late as 2pm
• G12 – From 11am but could start as late as 2pm
• U14 – Start from as early as 11am to starting as late as 2:45pm
• U16 – Start from as early as 1pm to starting as late as 8pm
• U18 – Start from as early as 2pm to starting as late as 8pm

Games are played in various locations in the region. You can find a list of the most common venues used by the Association here, along with some other useful information from the association: Venues

Withdrawal and refunds

The cost of playing and training for the season is $290. Once teams are published, if you choose to withdraw for any reason then refunds will be processed as follows:

• Withdrawal prior to final teams being published: full refund $290.00
• Withdrawal once the final teams are published: 50% refund less $12.00 per round played.
• Example: if a player withdraws after round 2, the refund will be $145.00 less $24.00 (2 rounds) = $121
• See https://htheat.com.au/fees for more details, including refunds for withdrawals due to injury

Note: for issues or questions regarding the use of the PlayHQ system, please use the PlayHQ Support Portal.

Kind regards,

Jason Schultz

Huntingtower Heat Registrar (volunteer)