I LOVE an inspiring sports story.
And there are few better than the Mildura Heat women’s team this year.
After starting the season with a win-loss record of 1-6, the Heat won eight of their next nine games to secure a home final at the Hothouse on Saturday.
The arrival of star Hungarian import Fanni Szabo has been a contributing factor, but so has the collective will of the team to pick themselves up off the canvas and turn their season around.
Sunraysia Daily sports reporter Matt Taylor has followed the journey throughout the year and brilliantly captured the team’s rollercoaster of fortunes and emotions.
Saturday’s first final against Western Port will also have a nostalgic element, given it will be played at the Hothouse. As of next year, the Mildura Heat are likely to be playing at the new Mildura Sporting Precinct, where the issue of inadequate spectator seating is set to be rectified.
The new facility in Mildura South is top notch and there are also plans with Mildura Basketball Association in the works to improve their spectator offerings.
But while the Hothouse is now outdated and in need of repair, the venue has been an institution in Mildura sport for many years.
And when the Heat are firing, the atmosphere is as good as it gets in the Big V competition.
This week, I talked to a few key basketball people about the rise of the women’s team this year.
They were saying that in the past, Heat crowds would gradually roll in during the women’s game, which has traditionally always been a curtain raiser to the men’s game.
But that is no longer the case.
When the buzzer goes at 6pm for the women’s games these days, all bums are on seats.
This week, Mildura Rural City Council appointed a gender equity officer for sport and recreation.
The council has obtained $200,000 to run the program, which is aimed at giving women and girls opportunity to participate more equitably on and off the field.
The sport of basketball is already well advanced in this space.
Participation rates across junior and senior grades are all growing in Mildura, and there is no discrepancy in coaching and player standards.
The Heat have been running junior trials across the past few weeks with large numbers of boys and girls turning out.
It is a big program that requires volunteers and families to travel around the state to provide our emerging players with elite opportunities.
The success of the Mildura Heat women’s side is particularly important, for it inspires those future generations of girls to get out on the court.
They want to become the next Vanessa Power, Mikayla Hermans or young gun Alannah Morello.
Coach James Madigan is determined that the team’s meteoric rise into the finals isn’t the end of the story.
If they make the grand final, they will host the first game of the series at the Hothouse, before hitting the road for games 2 and 3 against the higher placed team.
But the reality is that they might not go all the way – which makes it even more important that we fill the Hothouse to capacity Saturday, and celebrate its place in Mildura sporting history by cheering the Heat women to a win.
Who knows? They could write themselves into history.
