PLENTY of the basketball buzz in Ballarat has been about the American imports: who we can bring in to take the Miners programs to the next level.
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As much as we love our homegrown talent, imports are often ready-made stars for our marquee men's and women's teams. The best ones help bring the roster along with them, challenging their games to improve or strive for higher levels.
Miner Will Hynes' first points for the Plainsmen, Texas-based Frank Phillips College, this week was a reminder of just how important that pathway to the United States is, too.
Being so far away, working on their trade, sometimes we can neglect to realise just how much our basketballers are stepping up their games.
That is until a player like University of Colorado starter Jeremiah McKenzie returns in his summer break to qualify and help drive the Miners to a Big V youth league men's championships with a three-point masterclass.
The Miners men's and women's program have put basketball in Ballarat on a national stage in offering a pathway for the best emerging talent across the wider region, including McKenzie's hometown Horsham, to see where their game might take them as a team and as individual players.
A key part of this has been in welcoming some of the nation's finest emerging players, sometimes even those seeking second chances at higher levels, to share their experience and learn from our players. We only needs to start a roll call on the Boomers and Opals to see the Ballarat effect.
It is incredibly important for young players from our region to have the chance to springboard on to national league rosters and seeing them on the floor and on the bench, particularly when their teams visit Ballarat, shows a tangible pathway.
The chance for young, emerging players from our region to play college basketball in the United States is a massive deal.
Ballarat duo Georgia Amoore and Laura Taylor left the then-Rush program after the 2019 season - the first in the re-branded and restructured NBL1 - both bound for US colleges.
Amoore, who represented Australia at junior level, told Tech Sidelines last month Australian basketball leaders "try to keep the Australian pipeline in Australia" by promoting the chance to play against professionals.
Her time with Virgina Tech has been about challenging herself on and off the court while playing in the best conference in the States.
"I think a big thing was to come over, feel it out and if I leave, at least I can say I tried," Amoore said. "...I think it's better for me as a person and as a player to face adversity over here. Not only basketball, but I'm an international student, I have no biological family [here]. I'm just living it out every day by myself."
Hynes, like Amoore, Taylor, McKenzie and a string of other Miners to test US college level has the added challenge of adjusting to the American-style play as students of the game.
Whether they bring their learnings back to Selkirk Stadium or not - and we hope they do - these players continue to inspire juniors in what might be possible.
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