A SEASON opening clash against Diamond Valley Eagles will be a homecoming for Bendigo Braves coach Ben Harvey.
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The nine-year coaching veteran spent his entire junior career with Diamond Valley before going on to represent Victoria at under-18 and under-20 level.
Those ties along with a stint in the US college system laid the foundations for an eventual 328-game career in the SEABL, highlighted by three national championships with three separate teams.
The last of those came in 2005 with the Braves, the team he will lead into battle on Friday night against the league’s newest team.
The Harvey name is synonymous with Diamond Valley basketball.
Ben’s dad Brian was the inaugural facility manager and is an association life member; mum Josie worked for many years in the canteen, as a referee and in other volunteer roles.
The couple continue to live less than 10 minutes away from the Diamond Valley stadium.
But while the Braves’ 2016 championship coach sees much irony in drawing his former association first-up and wishes the new arrival every success, he expects to be less charitable come tip-off.
“Once we cross that white line it’s game on,” Harvey said.
“Tongue in cheek, I said to their coach Grant Wallace, ‘I hope you have a really great season, but I hope we beat you in your first game and you win the next four’.
“We’re expected to win this game, but for us we go out every week and play our game and whether it’s Diamond Valley, or Mount Gambier, we want to win …but we need to make that happen.
“We also want to make a statement early (in the season), but it’s the old cliché of one game at a time.”
The Braves will look to put a rare season without a finals appearance behind them and start the season with some significant inclusions.
Jeremy Kendle, who was league MVP in the Braves’ 2016 championship season, is back after stints in the NBL and New Zealand, and is joined in the back court by Illawarra Hawks back-up point guard Indiana Faithfull.
The Braves have bolstered their rebounding and scoring with the inclusion of import Ray Turner, who has previously plied his trade with remarkable effect in the Queensland and Western Australian state leagues.
Harvey remains grateful, but baffled how the 29-year-old American managed to escape the attention of rival SEABL teams despite four years of high-calibre performances on Australian shores.
“I don’t know why he hasn’t played SEABL; he has been to some big international programs,” he said.
“He’s been to Japan, he’s been to Germany and played a couple of years in Perth and QBL and done well.
“He’s a big man, but he’s dropped nearly six kilos since he’s been in Bendigo, is getting up and down the floor, but more importantly is fitting in.
“He’s all business – he and Matt Andronicos are going at each other at practice, that’s only going to make them both better.”
BENDIGO BRAVES ROSTER
Departing: CJ Aiken, Lewis Beks, Jake Cowling, Adam Doyle, Dyami Starks.
Returning: Chris Adkins, Matt Andronicos, Taylor Bell, Daniel Hansen, Chris Hogan, David Hogan, Jake Lloyd, Tanner Rayner.
Newcomers: Aidan Brohm, Indiana Faithfull, Jeremy Kendle, Ray Turner, Jack White.