Melbourne and Bungei NBL1 MVPs

Last night Basketball Ballarat and the Ballarat Miners celebrated season 2022 with their annual Basketball Ballarat Ray Borner and Robyn Maher Awards Night where Jade Melbourne and Preston Bungei were announced as the 2022 NBL1 Most Valuable Players.

The night held at Selkirk Stadium on the “Peter Eddy Court” celebrates and recognises the outstanding individual and collective achievements within our club and elite program.

The night began with roving canapes before local Ballarat identity Tim Bone MC’d the night.

The first awards of the night were for our youngest members of the Ballarat Miners Elite Program with the Karen Ashby GRIT Award going to Taj Bowman and Macey Irvin and Brendan Joyce JET Coach of the year award to Chris Thornton.

The night then moved on to the local Basketball Ballarat Clubs with their service awards. Ballan Brumbies recognised Jason Handrek and Jarrod Prosser, Saints Basketball Club acknowledged Maria and Rob Brooks and Wildcats had Marcus Jenkins and Ben Scott. All recipients are huge contributors to their local club’s success.

The night then moved onto broader association awards with the Frank Allisey Volunteer of the Year Award going to Paul Rundell for his extensive volunteerism across Club, JET and Miners home games.

We then celebrated Anthony Nunan as the Mt Avoca Club Service Award recipient. Anthony has been a part of the Basketball Ballarat tribunal for 10 years and has been integral to improving our processes over the years.

The biggest club award was next with the Dennis Foley Best Club Person Award and the worthy recipient was Donna Dunmore for the second time. Donna has a hand in all events that Basketball Ballarat runs from Australian Junior Nationals, Junior Country Championships, NBL1 and Youth League despite living in Ararat she spends most of her week at our basketball stadiums.

The final award for before the dinner break was the Bernie Stone Female Athlete of the Year award which went to Jemma Amoore for her commitment to the under 18’s Youth League and NBL1 women program as well as her work as a community hoops coach and work with all abilities basketball.

After the break we celebrated tour senior teams and the seasons they had in the Youth Championship division in Big V and NBL1 South. We started with you Youth Women who announced Layla Iglesias as their defensive player of the year and Annie Collins as the Bev Harwood MVP and League All Star 5.

We then moved onto the Youth Men. Head Coach Kyle Slack gave us a good summary of the season that culminated in the Championship beating Ringwood in 2 games. Kyle also announced his defensive player of the year as Oliver Lindebald and the Les Hotchin MVP as Jackson Talbot.

We then introduced a new award for 2022. The Kelly Richardson Players’ Player where Each Player across the Youth League and NBL1 Miners Women teams were asked to vote for their Favourite Player. When casting their votes all players were asked to consider the following criteria in which Kelly embodied

• Team is placed foremost
• Inspires performance from all
• Positive attitude exhibited in all aspects of the game
• Respected and reliable

Kelly’s Parents Therese and Garry were in attendance to present the award which was awarded to Jemma Amoore and Kristy Rinaldi who just could not be split by their teammates.

We then finished with the NBL1 awards which started with a club thank you to Women’s Head Coach David Herbert who departs the club after one season as he heads to the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence.

David then went on to announce his award winners with Zitina Aokuso taking home the Defensive Player of the Year, Millie Cracknell the Rising Star and Kristy Rinaldi the Dawn Jose Coaches Award. We then welcomed to the stage Basketball Ballarat Hall of Famer Robyn Maher AM to present the Robyn Maher Most Valuable Player to Jade Melbourne.

In Jade’s first season with the Ballarat Miners, she played in 19 of 22 games only missing games due to Australian Opals commitment. Jade averaged 20 points, 4.68 assistants and 8.42 rebounds a game and played 40+ minutes in 11 games for the season.

Finally, Men’s Head Coach Luke Sunderland presented his team awards with Defensive Player of the year going to Nic Pozoglou Rising Star was Will Hynes and the Brian Goorjian Coaches Award was presented to Zac Dunmore.

Life Member and Assistant Coach Paul Tudorovic came to the stage to present the Ray Borner Most Valuable Player award on behalf of Ray Borner OAM to Preston Bungei. Also, in his first season with the Ballarat Miners Bungei played in all 22 games averaging 15 points, 3.18 assists and 7.36 rebounds a game.

Basketball Ballarat would like to thank presenting partner Cooke and Foley and The Sporting Globe Ballarat for hosting the after-event celebrations.

Full list of award winners is below

2022 Basketball Ballarat Award Winners.

Brendan Joyce JET Coach of the Year - Chris Thornton

Karen Ashby GRIT AWARD - Taj Bowman and Macy Irvin

Basketball Ballarat Club Service Awards

Ballan Brumbies Basketball Club - Jason Handreck and Jarrod Prosser

Saints Basketball Club - Maria and Rod Brooks

Wildcats Basketball Club - Marcus Jenkins and Ben Scott

Frank Allisey Volunteer of the Year Award - Paul Rundell

Mount Avoca Club Service Award - Anthony Nunan

Dennis Foley Best Club Person Award - Donna Dunmore

Bernie Stone Female Athlete of the Year Award - Jemma Amoore

Youth League Women Defensive Player of the Year - Layla Iglesias

Youth League Women Bev Harwood MVP - Annie Collins

Youth League Men Defensive Player of the Year - Oliver Lindeblad

Youth League Men Les Hotchin MVP - Winner: Jackson Talbot

Kelly Richardson Players’ Player - Jemma Amoore and Kristy Rinaldi

NBL1 Women’s Defensive Player of the year - Zitina Aokuso

NBL1 Women’s Rising Star - Millie Cracknell

NBL1 Women’s Dawn Jose Coaches Award - Kristy Rinaldi

NBL1 Women’s Robyn Maher MVP - Jade Melbourne

NBL1 Men’s Defensive Player - Nic Pozoglou

NBL1 Men’s Rising Star - Will Hynes  

NBL1 Men’s Brian Goorjian Coaches Award - Zac Dunmore

NBL1 Men’s Ray Borner MVP - Preston Bungei