Below you will find everything you need to know about WABL and how it all works.
For information about WABL trials, please head to our WABL Raiders Tryouts Information Page.
The Western Australian Basketball League (WABL) is WA’s premier junior basketball competition catering for players in the following age groups: U12, U14, U16, U18, U20, and WABL Championship.
While Hills Raiders Basketball Association coordinates the local domestic competition played over a winter and summer season, Basketball WA coordinates the next level of representative basketball, which is the WABL.
The WABL Raiders representative season goes for a year, starting with the State Championships tournament in November/December and finishing at the end of the WABL season in September.
Unlike the domestic competition, the WABL age groups are determined by calendar year, so, for example, Under 14 players are those that turn either 12 or 13 during the calendar year from 1 January to 31 December.
WABL Raiders enters teams into the State Championships tournament that is run over a weekend in November or early December. Since it marks the beginning of the WABL season, the age groups for this tournament are U11, U13, U15, etc. (keeping age groups together during the following WABL season when the age groups are U12, U14, U16, etc.).
The State Championships are a fun weekend carnival, in which a number of Country Associations (e.g., Albany and Geraldton) play with metropolitan clubs like WABL Raiders, Lakeside & Perth. Playing in this tournament is a good opportunity for players to experience basketball at a representative level.
This is the winter competition that involves 13 Basketball Associations from both the metropolitan and country regions, extending from Joondalup to the Southwest (Bunbury).
Teams are graded during a grading tournament in February/March, which determines which one of 5 divisions the team will play in. The divisions are: Championship Division, Division 2, Division 3, Division 4, and Division 5. WABL Raiders normally have multiple teams within the same age/gender groups. Sometimes they end up in the same division as each other, sometimes not – depending on the results of the grading tournament.
Games are played on Sundays over an 18-week “Home and Away” Season, where every team plays each other twice, plus three weeks of finals. These “Away” games involve travelling to other stadiums or recreation centres.
The season generally commences on the last weekend of April, with finals finishing at the end of September.
Parents are expected to score at games and are rostered on by Team Managers. Generally, parents will only be required to score one game per season; however, this depends on the length of the season, where some families may do it twice.
An iPad is used, as is done at junior competition games, so most families will already be familiar with this.
Usually, the visiting team uses the iPad, and the “home” team is responsible fortiming games – stopping the clock each time the referee blows their whistle or restarting the clock when games resume. A game could last about an hour and 30 minutes, much longer than a domestic game.
The WABL introduced pre-season grading in 2014. This was done to help separate teams into the appropriate divisions to ensure players of the same ability were matched up against each other throughout the season.
There are a total of 15 venues that will host matches throughout the course of any given home and away season in the WABL. This means that players and families from WABL Raiders-based teams will need to travel to other venues for away fixtures. The following list of venues host WABL fixtures during the home and away season:
WABL Raiders teams for the WABL season are selected through a tryout process. Each season, the trials are opened up to any eligible player (must be registered domestically for the following Summer Season) and selections are made. In the event there are more players trying out than positions, then unfortunately, some players will not be successful.
Selection in a WABL Raiders team will be for the following WABL season. Once selected, all WABL teams will compete in the State Championships.
The following costs are payable by families:
All WABL teams train for 1.5 hours a week (court hire costs are covered by WABL player fees, and some teams have joint training sessions). Should a team wish to train over and above this, or at a different venue, court hire must be paid for by the team.
For WABL Raiders teams, the year generally goes like this:
Most finals fixtures will be played at Bendat Basketball Centre in Floreat. Secondary venues may be required for the first two weeks of finals, though if this is the case, players, teams, and families will be notified when the venue is confirmed.