Tara Murray
New Melton Thoroughbreds women’s coach Richard Morin wants to help the side go even further in the Country Basketball League north-west season.
The Thoroughbreds will have a women’s team for the third time this season having progressed both seasons.
Last season the Thoroughbreds made the finals before being beaten by eventual champions Bendigo Braves.
Morin, who was assistant coach last season, said he was excited by the new opportunity.
“I’ve been coaching for a number of years and I was an assistant coach for the youth league [Big V] at the Ballarat Miners in the season that just finished,” he said.
“I’ve coached basketball at VJBL [Victorian Junior Basketball League] level for a number of years. This role was appealing to me as we did really well last year.
“It’s a young team and we made the finals last year. Another opportunity to have another go at it and I think we can take these girls further.”
Morin said early conversations with last season’s playing group was that most were going to come to try outs and were keen to be part of the team again.
One area the side did lack last season was experience. Last season the average age of the playing group was 15 with the oldest player 18.
He said he’d made some phone calls as well to add a bit of experience to the group.
“I’ve made some calls to try and get some older heads,” he said. “If they do come it will be great.
“It would be nice to get a few older heads for a more of a leadership role, that was something we lacked last season with an inexperienced side.”
Morin said he put a five year plan to the Thoroughbreds committee in regards to where he saw the program heading.
He had two younger assistant coaches in Damian Richards and Mark Lewis, who he hopes will take over the reins in a couple of years time.
Morin is also keen on re-establishing a female Big V presence.
“I talked about that in my five year plan,” he said. “That was part of it.
“It’s a shame we don’t have it on a Saturday.. I loved going down to watch it.
“The idea is hopefully these girls want to be part of that. Hopefully we can build the women’s program up again and put Melton back on the map in the Big V.”
Trials for the women’s side are on August 21 and 25.
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