AS the weather starts to warm up, the Myrtleford and District Basketball Association is making preparations to launch their domestic season.

Set for an October 7 start, MDBA administrator Sarah Purss said they were eager to launch into the season.

“For us as an association, our numbers have grown,” she said.

“I would definitely say in our juniors and rep program there is a lot more opportunity now, more programs that are run locally for the kids, and probably a lot more interest.

“We’ve got kids who have joined the rep program, the numbers coming from Bright is massive, so they’re going to come down and join our club, there are quite a few who are coming across from Beechworth, it’s really nice.

“It’s feeling like a mixed community involvement.

“It’s off a couple of years of great wins for some of our rep team, I think the word’s out that basketball’s a great sport to be involved in, it’s a real family-oriented sport.”

Purss said the association was flourishing in the juniors and representative spheres.

“Our rep season training has probably been underway in the last couple of weeks, their first tournament will be on AFL Grand Final weekend, they’ll head to Echuca,” she said.

“We’ve got eight teams going off to Echuca across the boys and the girls.

“We’ve had six local children that have been doing this program called the Future Development Program, they’ve been doing that every Wednesday.

“The kids have been training, I think they’ve done 20 hours of training, and they’ll go off to a camp on Saturday, September 14.

“They’ll head to Shepparton, do a Basketball Victoria camp there, then kids from that camp will be selected to go to another camp called the Gold Nugget camp.

“From there, those kids can be selected to head off to play in the Southern Cross Challenge or the Albury Cup in the Country Victoria team.

“We’re pretty hopeful a few of our kids will make it through.”

Myrtleford will also have a presence in the Country Basketball League competition, with a team in the North East Women’s division - their season commences on October 6.

For more information or to register for the domestic season, visit the Myrtleford Dba page on Facebook.