Perry Lakes Hawks

Background

In the mid 1970s, the WA Basketball Council introduced an 'elite' competition held on Friday nights, featuring eight teams from the prominent districts of Perth, Swan Districts, Tangney/Willetton, Subiaco, East Perth, Cockburn, Stirling and Claremont. At the time, two of the strongest clubs in the Claremont district were Scarborough and City Beach, and after some dissension and debate, a new club was formed as Scarborough City Hawks. In 1986, Scarborough City Basketball Club changed their constitution to rename the club Perry Lakes Hawks. The new name was more geographically relevant and aligned the club with their home stadium at the time, Perry Lakes Basketball Stadium.

Formation of the SBL

1989 saw the formation of the State Basketball League (SBL) with both a men's and women's competition. The Hawks entered a team into both the MSBL and WSBL, with both teams having strong inaugural seasons. The men finished in second place on the ladder with a 19–3 record, while the women were crowned minor premiers with a first-place finish and a 15–6 record.

Championship era

1994 was a significantly memorable year for the club as the men won their first SBL championship with a win over the heavily-backed Swan City Mustangs in the grand final. Success for the women soon followed as they claimed their first championship in 1998. With the turn of the new century came the uprising of the Hawks. From 2001 to 2003, both the Hawks men and women claimed three-peats, with the men's team going even further by winning in 2004 before being stopped in their tracks by the Lakeside Lightning in the 2005 grand final.

During the three-peat era, the men were coached by John Gardiner and the women were coached by Rick Morcom. The men were led by forward-centre Matt Burston and guards Joe-Alan Tupaea, Peter Sinfield, Simon Blennerhassett and Trent Mayger, while the women were led by centre Kate Simkovic, forward Melissa McClure and guard Kim Morcom.

The men's team went on to make the grand final in 2009 and 2011 behind forwards Tom Garlepp, Ben Purser and 2011 MSBL MVP Anthony Lee, while the women's team won another two titles in 2007 and 2008 behind guard Deanna Smith.

Notable club figures

WA basketball great John Gardiner coached over 550 games in the SBL. Gardiner, who started coaching with the Hawks in 1982, coached the men's team from the inception of the SBL until the conclusion of the 2008 season when he retired. Some of Gardiner's most notable achievements as a Hawks coach include guiding the men to their first championship in 1994, and then putting together four successive titles from 2001 to 2004, making the Hawks men one of the most successful programs in the history of the SBL. He also earned MSBL Coach of the Year honours three times, and upon his death in 2014, Basketball WA announced the naming of the award as the "John Gardiner Men's Coach of the Year."

Another notable Perry Lakes figure is long-time Juniors Director and former Perry Lakes Stadium manager, Mike Bussell. In the late 1960s, Mike played at Perry Lakes Stadium in the Western Australian Basketball Federation (WABF) Metropolitan competition for a team from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He later joined City Beach Basketball Club in 1978, where he coached a number of teams and was the club treasurer at one stage. Mike joined the Scarborough City Hawks committee in 1983, before becoming the Director of Junior Competition in 1985, a position he held for over 20 years. Mike is a life member of his junior club, City Beach, his Association, Perry Lakes, and the State body, Basketball WA.