Sport
5 January, 2025
'Haven't done anything like it': Burke picked in January's ACJBC
Four Horsham juniors selected for rep basketball tournaments.
Young Horsham Hornet Luella Burke is looking forward to continuing her representative basketball journey.
Burke, 12, was one of four local juniors picked to play in the Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup or Southern Cross Challenge in January 2025.
"It's very exciting, I've never done anything like it before," Burke said.
Burke attended an introduction in Ballarat on December 8 for the week-long tournament.
"It was a lead up for it, to see what the gist of it was," she said.
"It was very good and went for the whole day... It was pretty tiring, but I like going to those sort of things."
She is also looking forward to continuing friendships with some teammates from the country under-12 jamboree from a few years ago.
"I've met a lot of my good friends now who I will go to school with next year through basketball... That's just made it so much better," she said.
On the court, Burke is looking forward to competing against some of the best junior talent in Australia and New Zealand.
I'm excited to see what their standard is," she said.
"I want to improve my skills, see how far I can push myself and see what I can practice in the future."
Joining Burke at the ACJBC is Hornets CBL MVP Micah Livingstone and now Ballarat Miner Levi Munyard.
Chavi Sulic was selected in the Southern Cross Challenge.
The ACJBC will be held at the Lauren Jackson Sports Centre in Albury, NSW from January 13-19.
A round-robin event, the ACJBC gathers over 60 teams and 700 participants annually in the under-12, 14 and 16 age groups.
The SCC will see Sulic attend the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South in Melbourne's west from January 17 to 20.
The SCC is a key entry point into Basketball Victoria's high-performance pathway.
It identifies talented athletes, coaches, and officials and offers them a chance to compete in an elite tournament setting.
Young talent selected in state performance program
Munyard and Livingstone have also been elevated into Basketball Victoria's state performance program.
The programs are tailored to develop high-calibre athletes that will head towards elite representation at the national level and into professional opportunities in Australia and abroad.
Country athletes were selected from state development program and got elevated into NPP and SPP early October.