October 24, 2026 — 5:00am

The night before my 10-year-old son’s final representative basketball tryout, he slept like a baby.

I did not.

Mason with South East Melbourne Phoenix guard and ex-Ringwood Hawks star Angus Glover.

We were both going to be at the Ringwood Hawks’ Victorian Junior Basketball League tryouts, a three-stage process (four, if you had to attend the “pre-tryouts”): Mason as a prospective player, and me as an anxious parent – and a coach.

Those two roles give me a good insight into the incredibly competitive, intense – but fun – world of junior rep basketball.

Many families register for tryouts at multiple clubs to increase their hopes of making a squad. Clubs are competitive, too – to the point of pushing the start time of their trials back at short notice, to force kids to make an early call on which club to pick.

It’s massive. There are 54 rep basketball clubs in Victoria that field more than 1200 teams each season.…