By Tara Murray
Macedon Ranges Basketball Association’s Erin Condron thought an ankle injury had ruined her chances of making the Vic Country team for the Australian under-16 basketball championships in July.
Participating in the first game at the final stage of the selection process, the 14-year-old hurt her ankle, ruling her out of the rest of the games and in the process left Condron feeling dejected.
“I was thinking … they’re not going to pick me now,” she said.
“There was a lot of good players in the mix, so I was pretty unsure anyway if I would get in.”
The players didn’t have to wait long to find out if they had been selected, with players told after the final game whether they had been selected after a six month process.
When Condron’s name was called out as having been picked in the team, she was in disbelief.
“We were still at the stadium and they had us all in a room,” she said.
“I was still down about myself, when I heard my name. I wasn’t sure that I had heard properly.
“I was bursting from the inside.”
Condron said she was unsure why she was selected in the final team, but her family was quick to point out that being 6’3 (192 centimetres) tall might have had something to do with it.
At that height, she was the tallest player at the final selection process.
Condron usually plays centre, with some stints playing as a forward.
“It does help,” she said of her height.
“There’s a lot a girls who are nearly as tall as me. You have to have a mindset of being tall and being able to use the skills that come with that.”
Condron is expecting a tough time at the championships, which are being held in Darwin.
She said she had played with a lot of her teammates at the Australian Country Championships earlier this year, which was used as part of the selection process.
They will have seven or eight, full-day training sessions between now and the championships.
Condron is the first female from the Macedon Ranges Basketball Association to be selected in the Vic Country under-16 girls team.
Condron started basketball as a five-year-old, with her family having long been involved with basketball – her mother Megan Condron saying that she tried to get Erin to try other sports but she kept coming back to basketball.
Currently she plays for the Woodend Hawks in the Sunbury Basketball Association competition, the Macedon Ranges representative program and for the Sunbury Jets representative squad.
She also helps out with running the Aussie Hoops program for the young players at Woodend.
“It’s a lot of fun and the kids are so cute,” she said.
“They are so eager to learn and I really enjoy it.”
Long-term, Condron said she would love to head to college in America and look at playing in the WNBL.
