The Greater Springfield Pioneers Basketball Association have had a successful 2023 campaign and look to continue that success into the 2024 season.
In their first year as an affiliate association with Basketball Queensland, the Pioneers cleaned up at the MVP awards for the 2023 QSL Youth League.
Pioneer players Shaia Tautua and Nathan May were both awarded MVP for the female and male categories for the Queensland State League Youth League.
Shaia dominated the 2023 Youth State League and has been successful in earlier campaigns, most recently in 2018 for Samoa Under 15’s FIBA Oceania campaign where she was awarded a bronze medal alongside June who Head Coached
Nathan topped majority of the categories in the 2023 Youth State League leading the way with scoring, shot blocking and free throws.
New milestones for Pioneers in 2024
The achievements in the 2023 QSL Youth State League campaign, which includes reaching over 500 active members, qualifies the Pioneers to debut in the 2024 QSL2 League, which CEO June is excited for.
“This is a milestone moment for the club and is a testament to the hard work our members and players are doing for the association,” she said.
Alongside the inclusion to the QSL2 League, the Pioneers Men’s team will have Cletz Amos as head coach, who is a former professional basketballer and currently involved with Philippines basketball pathways program.
“We are so fortunate to have such a high calibre coach, to take on this history making debut team for us,” said June.
“It just goes to show the level of professionalism we’re taking as we head into this new chapter for our association.”
The Pioneers also recently hosted their first Under 16 South Queensland Junior Basketball Competition carnival round, which is the highest level of competition for athletes aged 12 to Under 18.
“We are now hosting all of the associations at the Greater Springfield YMCA, which means we are having around 500 people trafficked through our suburb,” June said.
“We would love to see the community come down and support the club and see the exceptional local basketball talent”.
The Pioneers Basketball Association are also looking for young women to play basketball at any skill level, with QSL 2, QSL Youth League and U14 girls trials now on.
