Mount Gambier Pioneers

Mount Gambier Pioneers
Leagues SEABL
Founded 1988
History Mount Gambier Pioneers
1988–present
Arena Bern Bruning Stadium
Capacity 920
Location Mount Gambier, South Australia
Team colors Black, green, yellow
Main sponsor Castec Rural Supplies
President Tom Kosch
Head coach Richard Hill
Championships 4 (2003, 2014, 2015, 2017)
Website PioneersBasketball.com.au

The Mount Gambier Pioneers are an Australian basketball team based in Mount Gambier, South Australia. The Pioneers compete in the Men's South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) and play their home games at Bern Bruning Stadium. The team is affiliated with Basketball Mount Gambier, the major administrative basketball organisation in the region. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the CASTEC Rural Pioneers.

Team history

Early years

The Pioneers made their debut in the SEABL in 1988, but only made the playoffs in one out of their first nine seasons. Under coach John Burns, the Pioneers finished the 1997 season as conference runners-up before missing the playoffs again in 1998. They finished as conference runners-up again in 2000. Burns led the Pioneers for 5½ seasons before taking up a teaching job in Indonesia just over halfway through the 2002 season; he was subsequently replaced by his assistant Sonya Knight.[1]

2003 Championship glory

With Sonya Knight at the helm in 2003, the Pioneers took out the SEABL South Conference Championship before going all the way and winning through to the ABA National Final, where they defeated the Ballarat Miners 127–113 to claim their first ever National Championship.[2] The 2003 Pioneers squad included Jason Sedlock (co-captain), Damien Anderson (co-captain), Damien Smith, Jamie Holmes, Kurt Russell, Allen Cram, Ben Jones, Brad Wilson, Sam Fotu, Jason Joynes and Kingsley Clarke. Russell was named Under 23 South Conference Player-of-the-Year in 2003 as well as the MVP of the National Final;[3] Holmes won the South Conference's Most Valuable Player award; and Holmes and Anderson were both named in the SEABL All-Star starting five.[2]

Era of dominance

After eight straight seasons of missing the playoffs between 2005 and 2012, the Pioneers won four straight SEABL South Conference titles between 2013 and 2016, all under coach Richard Hill. They also won back-to-back SEABL National Championships in 2014 and 2015.[4][5][6] In 2017, the Pioneers won their fifth straight SEABL conference title, this time winning the East Conference.[7] They went on to clinch the SEABL National Championship, thus winning their third national title in four years.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Howell, Stephen (29 August 2003). "Knight makes her mark". TheAge.com.au. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 Morris, Rod (24 July 2013). "Pioneers to revisit history". BorderWatch.com.au. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  3. ↑ "ABA National Champions". SportsTG.com. 26 May 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  4. ↑ Hill, Kate; Sneath, Gretel (15 September 2014). "Championship win 'redemption' for Pioneers". ABC.net.au. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  5. ↑ Young, Chris (13 September 2015). "Mt Gambier beats Border Bandits to win SEABL title". BorderMail.com.au. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  6. ↑ Jackson, Trevor (15 September 2015). "Pioneers champions". BorderWatch.com.au. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015.
  7. ↑ SEABL (25 August 2017). "Congratulations @pioneers_ball! 5..." Twitter. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  8. ↑ "PIONEERS DYNASTY CLINCH THIRD CHAMPIONSHIP IN FOUR YEARS". SEABL.com.au. 2 September 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
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