Warriors mark 20 years

by Nicholas Duck

Twenty years is a long time in basketball.For those at Warragul Warriors, however, parts of it still feel like yesterday.

The Warriors this year celebrated the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough Big V championship when they took out the 2006 division two title after years of heartbreak.
Originally joining the competition in 2001, a core of talented local hoopers took it right up to a number of larger and more well resourced basketball associations across Victoria.
Despite coming agonisingly close on a number of occasions, it wasn't until 2006 that the club were able to finally take that last leap, overcoming Maccabi in a hard-fought and at times spiteful best-of-three series.
Warriors life member Mike Santo, a three-time Big V All-Star who won the league's MVP award in 2005 as well as its scoring title, said it felt "crazy" to think about 20 years later.
"To finally get that one in 2006 was a relief more than anything," he said.
"It was awesome, I can't believe it's been 20 years."
The Warriors played in finals losses in both 2004 and 2005. The latter of which was an especially tough pill to swallow - after claiming game one against Horsham, the Warriors were brought undone in game two by a half-court buzzer beater that sent the wildly hostile home crowd into hysterics.
Down on confidence and morale, the Warriors collapsed entirely in game three, and Santo admitted he still "wakes up from nightmares" about the shot.
Having once again made the deciding series in 2006, game one was the stuff of legends. Santo went ballistic, shooting 54 points while one of Maccabi's stars nearly matched it with 48.
A bumper crowd filled out Bellbird Park, where the club used to host home games.
"I've never seen that many people in there, it was that packed. It would probably be illegal these days," Santo recalled with a laugh.
The Warriors eventually won the high-scoring thriller by 13.
Game two at Maccabi saw emotions run hot, with Warriors captain Cameron Scott and the same Maccabi player who put up 48 ejected not long into the contest.
While an opportunity loomed to close out the series, the Warriors were unable to get the job done and trudged back to Bellbird on the Sunday, wrestling plenty of inner demons along the way.
As opposed to game one's free-flowing fun, game three was much more of a grind, but by the time the final buzzer sounded it was Warragul walking away winners and claiming their first - and so far only - Big V title.
Santo was named finals MVP for his efforts - an achievement he celebrated alongside his brother Sandro, who served at the team's coach.
"The build-up since 2001 was so big, to finally win it after that was awesome," Santo said.
"We had a lot of the same core guys since that first year, some of them were getting a bit older but the whole season was wild. We were just batting way above our average from the moment we got into Big V."
Unfortunately for the Warriors their Big V aspirations fizzled out just a couple of seasons later, the club withdrawing from the competition after 2009.
It wasn't until this year that Warragul made their return to the big stage, winning their way to a division two semi-final appearance.
Santo said it had been great to see the Warriors back in the competition, recently renamed to the Victorian Basketball League (VBL), and that he hoped to one day see the association add to their trophy cabinet.
"They've really embraced us guys who played back in the day, it's been great to get around them and see them do so well."