About our club

We are family-friendly local club established in 1970 by Ted Saw who wanted to involve his son in a sport that he himself played and loved. He recruited seven boys from the neighbourhood and the Watsonia Heights Basketball Club was born. Brothers and friends were recruited and six months later there were two teams. The following season saw this number grow to five and seven the season after.

Ted trained the boys in Fitzroy, Bundoora, Lower Plenty, in fact anywhere he could find an available court. He coached as many as six teams on a Saturday, all at different venues. It became virtually impossible to arrange a time to coach all the teams, so he enlisted the aid of Harold Patterson to coach team number 7.

As team numbers and club members grew, the need for a committee became apparent. A committee was formed with Cliff O’Connor, whose son played at that time, as the first President and Ted Saw was Secretary/Treasurer. The other members of the committee were Ron McGregor, John Stephens, Don Drake, Harold Patterson, and Tom Campbell, who were the parents of the players in the first team.

Over recent years, the Warriors have gone through an evolutionary phase, becoming more modern yet retaining our traditional roots. Our colours of gold and purple remain, but a few things have changed.

To reflect the ever-expanding geographical area of our membership, the club name was changed from Watsonia Heights to Watsonia. We take pride in the name of Warriors, so that remains unchanged, however cultural sensitivity around the original mascot saw that change to the current pair of basketballs. In order to distinguish ourselves from the open-age branch, we continue to be known as a Junior Basketball Club.