Brigitte Ardossi will play for the Altona Gators this season but she has more on her mind than winning games of basketball. 76413 Picture: John Preller
By Liam Twomey
WOMEN’S basketball in Altona is about to receive a facelift. No longer is the club prepared to lose talented players to high profile rivals from the state’s north and east.
The Gators are making changes to become a western suburbs powerhouse and the ball is already rolling with the signing of Australian basketball star Brigitte Ardossi.
The 24-year-old began her career as a junior in Altona before being forced to leave in search of more challenging opportunities. She went on to play WNBL for the Canberra Capitals, WNBA for the Atlanta Dream and college basketball for Georgia Tech.
Now Ardossi will return to her former club for the coming season, eager to ensure future talented juniors are not forced to move around like she was.
“I played for the Altona Gators when I was really young and they didn’t really have a higher division team that I could progress to. That made me leave the club,” Ardossi said.
“It made me realise that the western suburbs doesn’t really have a successful team in a high division that our girls can really aspire to play for. I feel like coming back and playing will bring the profile up. The next goal will be to bring this team up to Championship Division.”
Ardossi also plans to educate some of the juniors at Altona about the opportunities basketball can lead to outside of Australia.
“For me not having those avenues in the West, college just seemed like the only option. The only time I made a state team was in under 20s so I was under the radar and a late starter but I knew that was my goal,” she said.
“I’ll be telling them about that because it is a great option. There is only one Victorian state team that girls in this area can make and the sad reality is not everyone can make the team but there are also other options.”
Ardossi’s Altona teammates are already hard at work preparing for the new season in the hope of improving on their semi-final showing in last year’s Big V competition.
Assistant coach Elisha Hogan said the club was rapt to sign Ardossi and was hopeful it would lead to an improvement on last season’s semi final defeat.
“The girls have been back into it now for a good month. We are at Altona beach every Monday doing fitness and we have recruited a couple of other girls as well. We are working hard and we are looking forward to getting started.”
