ALL elite Basketball Ballarat teams will now be known as the 'Ballarat Miners' with the club setting its sights on a single focus entity going forward.
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It will mean the Ballarat Rush, a name which has been worn by all female players for the past decade, will be disbanded and replaced as the Miners. New jerseys will be designed to incorporate both logos as the club focuses on a 'one club' mentality.
Basketball Ballarat chief executive Neville Ivey said the club was keen to brand itself as a single entity for its future within the NBL 1, Youth League and all its junior elite teams going forward.
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"In benchmarking against our peers within basketball and across other sporting codes it was noted that most clubs, with male and female teams, play under the one club name," Ivey said.
Ivey said naming right sponsors of both the Miners and the Rush, Selkirk and Hotondo, had agreed to remain as major sponsors, with both brands to be adorned on the new look jerseys.
Along with the change, a newly redesigned team logo has been revealed which features symbols of the Miners pickaxe and the Rush ball logo coming together as one.
Women's player Millie Cracknell said she was excited by the opportunity, saying it was clear there had been a big effort made to integrate all levels of the game during the season just gone.
She said it was the right time for change.
"I've always played for the Rush, so it will be a bit of a change, but having the same name will be beneficial for us to know that we're all the same," she said.
The club officially changed the name from 'Lady Miners' to 'Rush' in February 2011.
The Lady Miners first entered the Victorian championship in 1984. It first joined the SEABL in 1990 and again in 2003.
Over eight years, the club made the playoffs five times, winning in 2005.
