The AIS Women’s Basketball program has again proved its world-class reputation for producing champions, with 22 of the 24 recently-announced 2012 Jayco Australian Opals, former scholarship holders.

Forged in 1981 under the direction of Basketball Australia, the development program for the country’s best young women aged 15 to 18, now accounts for 6 per cent of players in the Australian Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL).

The program’s most famous graduate is three-time Olympian and current World number one, Lauren Jackson.

Australian Opals Head Coach Carrie Graf said Australian women’s basketball would not be where it was without the AIS program, which gave young players invaluable understanding of an elite training environment and international competition.

‘It’s been a huge part of their development pathway – the bulk of our athletes have been a part of the AIS program,’ Ms Graf said.

‘There are numerous parts that have made up the success we’ve seen with the Opals. I think the WNBL has played a huge part in it as well, and certainly the AIS Women’s Basketball program has been a big part of that success.’

A man particularly proud of the latest Opals is Phil Brown – who is an Assistant Coach for the Opals and Head Coach of the AIS Women’s Basketball program.

‘It makes my position very exciting, to have an opportunity to coach a lot of the players that I coached many years ago when they were here on scholarship,’ Mr Brown said.

‘In terms of seeing so many of them come back and represent their country at that senior level and compete for one of only 12 spots in the Olympic team, is pretty special.’

Underpinning the AIS program is a strong Australian junior club system and the National Intensive Training Program, which identifies top junior players aged 13 to 17 and fast tracks their development.

Mr Brown said programs and services offered by State and Territory Institutes and Academies of Sport also helped develop the young athletes before they arrived at the AIS.

‘Basketball is booming at the grassroots level in Australia,’ Mr Brown said.

‘We have a strong participation base with our junior kids playing and I think we have a strong foundation with our national leagues, the AIS playing a very pivotal role in technical leadership and direction, and having programs such as ours, which is regarded around the world as one of the best of its kind,’ he said.

Mr Brown believed the residential or ‘live-in’ nature of the AIS women’s basketball program was a key to its success. 

‘What makes our program so good is that we’re able to attract the best junior players in Australia to come and live on campus. Our daily training environment is pretty incredible because we have the top 14 girls training with and against each other every day.’

The scholarship holders also played as a team in the WNBL against the best Australian players and American imports.

‘We tour overseas and expose the girls to different playing styles in Asia, Europe and America,’ Mr Brown said.

AIS support services for the girls, such as strength and conditioning, sports nutrition, exercise physiology, performance psychology, recovery, athlete career and education support, were also second to none.

Mr Brown said the state-of-the-art AIS facilities and equipment – improved by a $75 million capital upgrade in 2007 – were also factors in the program’s success.

‘We’ve got three courts from 6am til 10pm at our disposal,’ Mr Brown said.

“That daily training environment the athletes are immersed in for their two or three years is what separates it from other club programs, not only in Australia but also around the world,” he said.

‘We’re very fortunate the Federal Government supports the AIS and the sport of basketball through a program like we have.’

The Australian Government is providing record funding to sport, with $6 million this year allocated to Basketball alone, including the AIS Women’s Basketball program.

The program recently graduated another eight future champions, with Sarah Blicavs, Olivia Thompson, Rebecca Cole, named as ones to watch.

Despite his Opals commitments, Mr Brown is busy with the latest scholarship holders, who were now into their fourth week of the program, settling in to a new routine of school and practise.

Ms Graf and Mr Brown believed Australian women’s basketball had a strong future.

‘The bulk of our players get to play professionally in overseas leagues and I think that’s a statement about our pathways in Basketball Australia, both the AIS program [and] our league,’ Ms Graf said.

She played down any talk of winning Gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

We’re not talking about gold medals or that sort of thing at this stage. First and foremost it’s about getting our team together. Until we get our group together and we get prepared, then we’ll start talking about what we think we can do in that tournament.’

The Opals attended a preparation camp at the AIS in Canberra this week. They will return to the AIS in May for more work ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The 22 former AIS scholarship holders selected in the 2012 Jayco Australian Opals Squad are:

Suzy Batkovic, Abby Bishop, Elizabeth Cambage, Rohanee Cox, Cayla Francis, Kristi Harrower, Laura Hodges (nee Summerton), Lauren Jackson, Rachel Jarry, Kathleen Macleod, Jenna O’Hea, Elyse Penaluna, Erin Phillips, Alicia Poto, Samantha Richards, Jennifer Screen, Belinda Snell, Penny Taylor, Marianna Tolo, Kristen Veal, Carly Wilson, Hanna Zavecz.