Driving to the basket: Harrison Keating has recently become a Bendigo Brave and will be point guard for the Braves’ Under 16 team. He has been selected for a second time in a Victorian Country team.
Rochester brothers Harrison and Harvey Keating have won selection in Victorian Country teams to compete at the national junior basketball country championships in January next year.
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Fourteen-year-old Harrison will play as a point guard with the Under 16 team at the country cup event, while 12-year-old brother Harvey will also be one of the playmakers for the Under 14 team at the January 16–21 event.
The championships are being held at Albury Wodonga.
Harrison became a member of the Bendigo Braves squad in July and is currently training twice a week in preparation for the new season, which starts on November 18.
He is in year eight at Rochester Secondary College, but, with his brother, is currently staying in Bendigo at his grandparents’ home while flood recovery works continue at Rochester.
Harrison will play with the Braves in the Friday night competition, which mostly involves the Bendigo team competing against metropolitan teams.
Bendigo Braves Under 16 team won the junior country championships last season, but only one member of that is part of the new team.
Harrison has been playing in the point guard role with the team, using his ball-handling skills and athleticism to drive strongly to the basket.
He has been getting about 75 per cent of game time in the warm-up matches for the new season.
Harrison and Harvey are part of a 20-member squads that will represent Vic Country at the national junior titles.
The remaining members of the squads are from throughout Victoria, including Macedon, Geelong, Ballarat and Warrnambool.
The brothers will attend training camps in November and December in preparation for the five-day championships.
This is Harrison’s second selection in a country team, although he never got to compete when he was an emergency for the Victorian Country team that contested the national junior championships in Perth, in July this year.
“They took 10 to the titles, but I didn’t get to go,” he said.
He won selection in that team after a brilliant country championships carnival where he had four scores above 20 points from five games, including 28 against the accomplished Echuca combination.
Twelve-year-old Harvey has been selected in the Under 14 Victorian Country team.
He is still part of the Rochester squad and also plays in the point guard position.
The brothers are regulars on the courts of the primary and secondary schools, across the road from their home, but will be without courts for some time after extreme damage to the schools’ sporting facilities.
“We are pretty competitive, so we practice once or twice a week together,” Harrison said.
Harvey is in year six at St Joseph’s Primary School
Fast break: Harvey Keating has been selected for the first time in a Victorian Country team, for the country junior championships at Albury Wodonga from January 16-21.
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