Kamikaze Pilots and arch-rivals, BNB. The sides are pictured above before their grand final game in March 2018.
When Squalleyball veteran Colby Lawrence was asked to pick his Dream Team for The Cobar Weekly he said at first he was afraid, he was petrified.
And then when he sat down to write up a team list, he found it hard going.
“I’m going to list nine players as that is how many people you can have registered for a team as opposed to the four that you have on court at one time,” Colby said.
Starting off his list is Latisha Bennett— Latisha can throw around a “Hay Maker” with deadly accuracy that would make any farmers dreams come true.
Not only that but anyone who can break their ankle, in three separate spots during the first of five games, and then go on to play in all games and win the match, deserves a spot on this list!
Justine Wells—the pocket rocket. This girl was always in the right spot at the right time.
Justine never stopped moving on the court and always managed to pick up the little stray shots and keep the point alive.
Zebrina Wells—the woo girl. Every team needs a hype girl and there was no better than Zebrina.
She was the loudest person both on and off the court. Zebrina had the ability to distract the other team (as well as other games) with her banshee cries.
Her non-stop antics and laughter also made it a very enjoyable experience. You could be being handed the biggest beating of all time and would still feel like you were winning if Zebrina was on your team.
Jed McBride—aka The Mantis. The only selling factor to Jed making the list is because of his height advantage.
Jed was able to walk up to the net and literally, look over it. While Jed could block just about every shot that came towards the net, his lanky physique would also make him look like a giant insect attacking the ball.
This led to Jed’s nickname on the team as “The Praying Mantis.”.
Luke Anderson—Luke’s determination is what has earned him a spot on this team. Luke never gave up on a point and would fight until the bitter end.
Fast on the court and with a fairly hard and accurate hit, Luke was an important player in every game
Nicholas Buckman—Nicholas is an all round player. He is good in attack and defence.
Nicholas has the natural ability to read the play and put himself in the right position, each and every time.
To get a ball past Nicholas is not an easy task. His quick reflexes, speed on the court and his hard, sharp and accurate hits are some of the things that make Nicholas a formidable player.
Jake Harbison—Jake has not played in some time and the memory bank is a little rusty on his playing abilities.
One thing I do remember though is his hits were one of the hardest to return in the comp.
If I was able to return most of Jake’s big hits during a game, I would walk away still feeling like a winner.
Jake is a natural sportsman and those abilities did not let him down on the Squalleyball court.
Nikki Gilbert—Big hits and determination are Nikki’s biggest attributes.
Nikki did not like to let anything get past her. She attacks the ball with relentless energy and is determined to win every point.
This brings us to our last player for the team and the player that I have named as captain.
While the rest of the players are a bit of an unruly bunch, we need a leader who will take the role seriously and keep the others in line.
No one, and I mean no one, takes the game more seriously than Travis Buckman.
Travis can often be heard coaching his teammates and telling them how to play, even when they don’t want him to.
I believe Travis has even been kicked out of his own team for how serious he takes the game, so I couldn’t think of a better person for the role.
“Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to pass the fitness test to be part of the team so I will have to settle for official scorer, mostly because I refuse to be left out of anything to do with Squalleyball,” Colby said
