Page 53 - 2022 BWA ANNUAL REPORT

PARTICIPATION
Michael Cake Participation Manager PARTICIPATION NUMBERS FOR BASKETBALL
IN AUSTRALIA CONTINUE TO GROW
Despite the impacts of COVID-19 still lingering early in the year, 2022 saw a return to a lifestyle reminiscent of pre-covid, resulting in record breaking participation numbers for basketball in Australia.
In Western Australia, our registered competitive members reached over 64,000, surpassing last year’s record by over 9,000 new members. The latest Ausplay survey estimates total participation numbers in WA reaching over 180,000, making basketball the number 1 team sport for ages 0-14 and number 2 for ages 15+ in WA.
FUEL TO GO AND PLAY
SCHOOL SLAM SERIES
The Fuel to Go & Play School Slam Series is a Basketball WA initiative focusing primarily on providing an inclusive and fun environment for primaryschoolstudentsasanintroductionto basketball. Despite a Covid affected Term 1, BWA delivered 14 School Slams with almost 100 schools and over 2,000 participants across the state. In 2022 these participants were 46% female, which is 53% higher than programs Australia wide.
The series helps connect schools and participants to their local basketball associations, with each Slam Series promoted with association or regional branding. This year’sserieswasheldin8metroand6country locations, including Karratha, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, and Busselton.
The annual Fuel to Go & Play Champions Cup took place in November, with the top 32 teams from across the series competing for the Championship title. After several years near the top and close losses in the 2020 and 2021 grand finals, Wembley Primary School finally took out the title in the girls’ competition. In the boys’ competition, Wembley Downs Primary School came out on top in only their second year participating in the series.
Basketball WA would like to recognise Healthway and our school partners – School Sport WA and SEDA college – for their ongoing support in delivering the series. The program continues to provide a platform for the educating young people on the benefits that sport can provide in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
AUSSIE HOOPS
Our Aussie Hoops Program continues to excel as an introductory program for 5-10 year olds, growing each year as the brand gains for recognition across Australia. 2022 was another record breaking year for our Aussie Hoops program in WA with 7,687 participants across the year. Next year we hope to break through the 8,000 barrier for Aussie Hoops participation, which would be an amazing achievement.
The Cockburn Cougars continue to lead the way with their nationally ground-breaking Aussie Hoops program, with more than 1,600 participants and programs running across multiple sites.
In 2022, we welcomed Kalamunda Eastern Suns to the Aussie Hoops program and they kicked off with some excellent numbers across the year. New programs were additionally run in the country towns of Gingin and Kununurra. Country programs in Byford, Wickham, Cunderdin and Denmark also deserve recognition for the excellent growth in numbers they experienced in 2022.
2022 saw the completion of a national review of the Aussie Hoops program. We thank a number of our Centres for their engagement andcontributiontothisreviewprocess.Key themes emerging from the review included the need for improvements in the Aussie Hoops participant pack (especially with delivery times); updates to the Aussie Hoops program manual and coaching resources; and new marketing resources for Aussie Hoops Centres. These are issues that Basketball Australia are now focused on and we have already seen substantial changes in these areas. This includes a refreshed branding design, which has now been rolled out across all our Aussie Hoops Centres. During 2022 we also embarked on the process of transitioning the Aussie Hoops registration portal to PlayHQ, so that all our WA Centres could run their membership programs off one system. We thank all our Aussie Hoops Local Centres for their patience and support in adapting to these changes.
BWA often looks to our Aussies Hoops programs as in indicator of the future health of our sport. Current trends point to the huge popularity of our sport, which suggests a promising future. However, it is concerning that the percentage of girls in the Aussie Hoops program is trending downwards, so this is an area that needs focused attention to reverse.
“BWA’s registered competitive
members reached over 64,000,
surpasing last year’s record by 9,000”
BWA ANNUAL REPORT 2022 | 47