Meteors’ milestone

By Casey Neill
MOUNT Evelyn Meteors have dribbled and dunked their way through three decades.
Players, coaches and their families will celebrate the basketball club’s 30th birthday at Lilydale Basketball Stadium this Sunday 14 November.
The family fun day will run from 12.30pm to 4pm and feature special guests from Melbourne Tigers, jumping castles, face painting, games, give-aways, lollies, prizes and more.
Visitors can bring their own picnic lunch or enjoy a free hot dog and drink.
In 1980 about 20 local teams played basketball independently in various competitions in the area.
At a dinner party Norm and Mary Smith, Roger and Jan Alderman and Steve and Helen Higgins thought to co-ordinate these teams.
They held a public meeting and Mount Evelyn Basketball Club formed soon after.
The club started its first junior season with four girls teams and three boys sides.
Summer 2010/11 will see the Meteors field 31 girls teams and 35 boys teams, from under-8s through to under-21s.
Teams originally played in the Knox Amateur Basketball Association at Boronia stadium, later joining the Kilsyth and Mountain District Basketball Association to play at nearby Kilsyth Stadium.
Sides currently play at Kilsyth, Lilydale and Oxley College stadiums.
Mount Evelyn’s basketballers were known as Cobras during their time with Knox but had to find another name when they joined Kilsyth, whose representative side already wore the moniker.
The ‘flaming meteor’ logo and Meteors name were born in 1996.
Training in the early days was held in an old joinery shed with a concrete floor.
Mount Evelyn and Birmingham primary schools, Mount Evelyn Technical College have all since served as training bases. Pembroke Secondary College’s Mount Evelyn campus accommodates team practices today.
“We have a wonderful committee of dedicated people, dozens of coaches who donate their time and effort in training and guiding their teams every week, dozens of team managers and hundreds of parents supporting their children’s endeavours,” Meteors vice-president Jennifer Cuttriss said.