By Shamsiya Hussainpoor
A Ferntree Gully primary school teacher and basketball enthusiast has proven to be at the peak of her coaching game, after leading her ‘School Sports Victoria’(SSV) team to victory for two consecutive years.
Wattle View Primary School teacher, Michelle Letts has been coaching basketball for many years, but this was her third year coaching the Under-12 boys SSV team at the School Sports Australia Games in Gold Coast, Queensland.
She has been playing basketball since the age of five, and she said she loves coaching as much as she loved playing the game.
“In 2022, we made the grand finale, but unfortunately we lost by two points, we were silver medallists, then the last two years have been fortunate enough to win gold back-to-back,” Ms Letts said.
The gold-medallist coach has travelled all over the state, including Bendigo, Ballarat, Casey, and Wantirna to select top 12 basketball players to represent SSV at the national level.
“There are three different rounds of trials, we select kids at different regions, then comes the process of elimination, and then we eventually select the top 13 kids – 10 of them will be part of the team, the other three will be for emergencies,” she said.
“The kids selected are from all around Victoria.”
School Sport Australia (SSA) was establishment in 1981 to provide high-quality national sport championships for representative State and Territory school sports team.
The SSA’s program entails multi-sport, including a mix of team and individual sports; delivered by teachers and qualified officials and providing access to every student in Australia, through the school system.
Ms Letts and her SSV basketball team headed to Gold Coast towards the end of July for the tournament.
The team played seven games and won all seven – bringing home a gold medal
Game one won against Western Australia
Game two won against New South Wales
Game three won against ACT
Game four won against Queensland
Game five won against South Australia
Game six, Semi Final won against South Australia
Game seven, Grand final won against South Australia
“In order for the players to be eligible for selection, their school has to be affiliated with the School Sports Victoria, then their school has to nominate them to be eligible to come to try out,” Ms Letts said.
“None of the players were in the same team, multiple times, and each state is only allowed six of three-hour trainings in preparation for the SSA tournaments.”
“In those 18-hour training sessions before the championship, we got to make sure they’re switched on and they’re ready to put in 110 per cent because we only get certain amount of time together.”
She said the boys didn’t get gold medal for trying, they worked extremely hard to achieve this incredible outcome, it’s the results that made them gold medallists.
The school Ms Letts works at is one of the schools associated with the SSV – but no students made the team this year.
“I’m very fortunate enough that our principal (Tracy Wright) is supportive of me to follow my passion, and represent the school,” she said.
“I’d like to extend my gratitude to our principal for all her support and allowing me to fulfill my passion and in being able to be part of this amazing experience.”
“Seeing the boys celebrate at the closing ceremony was what it was about, it was special for the boys to be presented with their gold medal, their shield and the trophy as well – seeing how proud the boys were of their success was truly an amazing feeling.”
Ms Letts is hoping to reapply for coaching the 2025 team.
“For me it has become about giving back to the game I’ve always been part of for so many years, and it’s about giving back to the sport I have had so many happy memories from.”
