How It All Began

In 1981, Meg and John Walsh advertised at Mullum Primary for boys under nine to play in basketball teams which would be known as the Ringwood Hawks. The teams would play in the Melbourne East Basketball Association's Junior Saturday Competition (MEBAJSC). The response provided four under nine teams and an under 11 team made up of older brothers who also wanted to play. 

In those days the MEBA competition, along with the EDJBA (Eastern Districts Junior Basketball Association), were by far the strongest junior domestic competitions in Melbourne. The Kilsyth Junior competition had not commenced, in fact Kilsyth Stadium was a venue for the MEBA, and the Knox Junior competition had only been in operation one season. 

By 1985, the load of managing the burgeoning number of teams was becoming too much for John and Meg and it was at this time the first committee was formed with Wayne Barlow (President), Wayne Bird (Vice President), Elaine Oakley (Secretary) and Wayne Herring (Treasurer). The club was growing at an enormous rate; in a very short space of time we went from being the newest club to the biggest. 

Girls teams came into being within the club in 1984. Up until then, the MEBAJSC had only conducted boys competitions with the girls competition being played mid-week after school. In the latter half of the 1980's we were unquestionably the biggest and the best in the MEBA, and unfortunately not necessarily the most liked. We consistently appeared in, and won, 'A' grade finals for all boys and girls age groups at the expense of the more traditional clubs, much to their chagrin. 

In 1989, we decided that the time had come for us to develop our own Championship teams. Up until then, the majority of our players playing at the Championship level were part of the Melbourne East teams - Nunawading Spectres. In fact, over 40% of the boys in the Nunawading Spectres teams were Ringwood players. Despite this, there were still quite a few players who were not getting the opportunity to play at that level, and hence our move down that path. 

Ringwood Junior Domestic Competition

About the same time, we were finding it difficult managing the numbers of teams and players wishing to play for Ringwood in the MEBAJSC. We 'hit' upon an idea of playing the younger age groups (under 9) locally in a Mini-Ball competition at Parkwood Secondary College. The teams were named after NBA teams - Celtics, Spurs, Bulls, etc.. The games were refereed in a more 'relaxed' manner always talking to the players explaining the violations, and parents were rostered to learn how to score. It was in effect a training program for players, referees, potential coaches and parents.

Like all good Ideas, it started to get bigger and bigger until it developed into what became the Ringwood Junior Basketball Competition. 

 
From that point, there were some changes in attitudes and needs. Not all parents wanted to travel to Nunawadlng, Box Hill, Oakleigh or Mulgrave to play a domestic game of basketball. It was much more convenient to play locally - less travel and more time available for other things. In very quick time more players arrived and more teams were created, the original group players started getting older and the term Mini-Ball was no longer appropriate. We formed the Ringwood Junior Basketball Competition. 
In terms of participating teams, we allowed the competition to develop as originally designed - multiples of teams named after NBA teams competing in the different age groups and grades. All the teams were still administered by members of the Association i.e. uniforms, training times, coach allocation and recruitment, etc..

 
Again due to growth in this competition, the Association decided it was appropriate to delegate the administration and management of the various teams. This strategy involved the formation of autonomous clubs to run teams within the Ringwood Basketball Association domestic competition. These clubs would draw on the existing base of players in the competition plus additional players obtained from their own recruiting drives. Under this plan four clubs existed: Spirit Magic, Heathmont Homets, Lilydale Suns and Ringwood Celtics. 

The committee placed a high priority in developing a strong girls competition in all age groups and growth in the competition allowed it to move from a mixed competition to the establishment of girls competitions at the higher age groups. 

After many years successfully operating under this model, a joint initiative between Ringwood Basketball Association and Melbourne East Basketball Association created the the Greater Eastern Basketball Conference (GEBC) which absorbed Ringwood's Junior Saturday Competitions, providing a wider range of competition for Ringwood based teams. 

Ringwood Senior Domestic Competition

By about 1992, quite a few fathers junior players had been infected by the basketball bug. Some of them at Holy Spirit Primary School were training and scrimmaging late after Junior training at Aquinas. What a good idea, let's start up an Over 30's Competition on Wednesday nights. Like the junior domestic competition, the senior competition also experienced much growth and quickly exhaused the court capacity of the new stadium following transfer of the competition from Aquinas. 

Ringwood Senior Representative Teams

In late 1989, an opportunity arose to enter the Country Victorian Invitation Basketball League (CVIBL), a quality senior competition conducted for selected country and metropolitan Associations. Only two places were available and the league chose Diamond Valley and Geelong. It was then that fortune smiled upon us when Geelong withdrew and we were offered the position, which we gladly accepted. For the first two years our home court for these games was Templestowe High School and Albert Park, then moving to play out of Aquinas. In 1990, we applied for and was accepted into the Women's CVIBL. Subsequently the CVIBL competitions became the Victorian Basketball league (VBL) and Women's Victorian Basketball league (WVBL), with the men's team breaking through for the Associations inaugural title in 1999.

Subsequent to this the VBL and WVBL merged under the Big V banner and after a number of lean years, the Association enjoyed great success over the 2011-2018 period with various teams winning 7 championships. 

There have been countless people who have had an impact on the early growth of Ringwood Basketball. Some have been recognised through Life Membership or the Founders Award, but many more have made valuable contributions to the Association and we thank them all.