Club History

City Beach Basketball Club was founded by Gary Foster, a teacher at City Beach Primary School in 1970. The Club was formed so that children at the school were able to play. This is where our club colours of black, red and white originated, together with our club logo, the seagull.

CBBC played at Perry Lakes stadium against teams from all over Perth, particularly enjoying their rivalry with teams from Fremantle PCYC and Mirrabooka.In the early 1970s, the Club consisted of 2 Men’s teams, 1 Ladies team and about 10 junior teams. The Club then decided to focus exclusively on the development of junior basketballers in the area, and the senior teams were disbanded. Early contributors to the successful growth of the Club included Graham Luck, Beryl AhChee and Mick Stanley. By the late 1970s, the Club had grown to about 20 teams. The Competition saw the addition of teams from new clubs such as Subiaco, Clare-Cott PCYC and Scarborough.

When the WA Basketball Federation decided to organise their competition into 8 different district sides, City Beach and Scarborough were the Clubs who combined to form Scarborough City Basketball Club. Later when other venues away from Perry Lakes stadium were established, Scarborough City changed its name to the Perry Lakes Hawks.

In the late 1970s John Gardiner and his family became involved in the Club and other major contributors during the early 1980s were Mike and Del Bussell and Bob Miller. Peter Wodzianski first got involved in coaching at this time and was still a significant contributor to coaching our juniors as recently as 2008. The Club continued to grow, despite the emergence of Churchlands Basketball Club, and later the addition of Raiders and Woodlands, all drawing from the same catchment area. Contributors during the 1980's included Sandra Taylor, Barry Hardman, Chris Bowers, Judy Harvey, John Pitsikas, Michael Agapitos, and Graham & Leonie Annan. During these years, the Club grew to over 40 teams.

Over the years our Club has developed some of WA’s great players – including David AhChee, Alan Watts, Eric Watterson, Lesley Hateley, Kerry Luck, Susan Giles, Jenny Marsh, Kate Simkovic, Heath Gardiner, Chris Carroll, Ryan Gardiner, James Harvey, CJ Bruton, Josh Garlepp, and Dan Harloe.

Interestingly, if you look through all the names mentioned since our Club’s formation you will see a significant number of families that are still involved with the Club through their children and grandchildren.

(with thanks to Stuart Luck for doing the research on our history!)