Page 12 - BWA Annual Report 2020 W

PERTH LYNX
HEAD COACH Ryan Petrik
5 | BWA ANNUAL REPORT 2020
The 2020/21 Perth Lynx season was unlike any other in league history. With the Covid situation fluid in the background, the season was reduced to a Hub format just to get a season off the ground. Unfortunately for us, a November Hub in Queensland cost us League MVP candidate Sami Whitcomb, and our reigning Defensive Player of the Year - Maddie Allen, from even suiting up.
The upside to losing these two critical players from the squad, is that it breeds opportunity for others. It allowed us to take seven players aged just 23 years
of age or younger; and to recruit ten players of the 12 taken that were either from WA, or WA based players, both records for the Club since the Lynx rebranding in 2014.
After getting off to a shaky start to the campaign, the players settled in to their foreign surrounds well. By
the second half of the Hub season they really started to play some excellent basketball, highlighted with a three-game win streak late in the campaign. Whilst
the 4-9 record wasn’t what we wanted, going 1-5 in games decided by six points or less, showed just how close this young squad was, and what could have been with Whitcomb and Allen providing extra support.
Katie Rae Ebzery was yet again awarded a place in the All Star First Five, and WA athlete Darcee Garbin won the Player of the Round award for Round four. Both players were also named into the squad for the Australian Opals for the Tokyo Olympics, and recently Alex Sharp has been announced in the 3x3 squad for the Tokyo Olympics.
I would like to finish by saying thank you to BWA, Rob Clement and his staff at BWA working behind the scenes, coaching staff Keegan Crawford and Adam Wolski, and volunteers and development coaches that has gone into this program this year. It has certainly been a challenging time for everyone, but the fact a season even got off the ground was a terrific result.
Ryan Petrik
PERTH LYNX HEAD COACH