Daniel Sutton, affectionately known to the Ballarat basketball community as DJ Sutton, had a lot to say about the talent shown at the recent NSR Australia Basketball Victoria showcase.
The basketball coach has been involved in the junior level of basketball for about nine years, spending the last seven years in Ballarat.
“Currently I’m on the committee for the Ballarat representative program. I also coach the Under-12’s but in the past I have coached the Under-18 team, the State Championship team…and worked with the Under-23’s so a lot of youth league teams out of Ballarat,” he explained.
The basketball coach was present at the recent at the recent Basketball trials in Ballarat, and was impressed with the wide range of talent that showed up.
“They weren’t all from Ballarat, they were from across the region. There was a kid yesterday that was pretty decent, and he came out of Mildura from what I could see,” he said.
“There was good size, good length and athleticism which was pretty promising. There wasn’t a lot of girls there yesterday which was disappointing, but I guess that’s just a matter of time and exposure.”
DJ believes that the NSR program is suited for a wide range of basketball players.
“I think you’re going to get different sorts of kids that’ll go down that path. There will be those that do really want to be professional athletes, and there’ll be those that want to do it for life experience,” he said.
“They’re still elite in their sport, but it’s more taking the opportunities that their basketball can give them, an opportunity for an education or an opportunity to experience a different part of a world.”
The seasoned coach believes that the NSR program gives a wide range of basketballers an opportunity to gain exposure.
“It’s really targeted for those kids who don’t get exposure through the state programs and things like that where you’ve only got the 10 kids who get recognised. This is for that next tier of kids,” he said.
Thanks for the insight, DJ!
