Life Members

At Diamond Valley Basketball Association, we believe that success is built on the foundation of loyalty, dedication, and unwavering support. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our esteemed Life Members, whose commitment and contributions have played an instrumental role in shaping our club’s rich history and vibrant community.

Ron Collins

Ron Collins

(Deceased)

Ron was a key player in council negotiations to secure land for our stadium and it’s construction, as well as canvassing local schools to recruit players to ply in the competitions in the inaugural Junior Domestic season. Ron was involved with the Diamond Valley Eagles club and even hand-drew the Eagle logo and screen printed them onto shirts in his home for the players. Ron also coached Junior Domestic at Kingsbury and Watsonia Heights and devoted lots of his time to mainly D-grade level athletes as a preference, pouring in time to those that often got overlooked – coaching up to 6 teams at a time in both boys and girls. He was a President of the Men’s committee, DVBA Secretary and was an inaugural player in our first Diamond Valley Eagles Senior Championship Men’s team.

Arthur Clark

Arthur Clark

President of DVBA for 2 separate terms over a decade and a half combined, Aurthur was involved with Telstar domestic program in a number of roles, including coaching for nearly 20 years across all age groups, and was influential in having Friday night Junior Championship basketball games hosted by Diamond Valley as a venue. Arthur was the first President of the Association to devote money in the yearly budget towards Coach education, including sending coaches to Sydney to attend coaching clinics to further their development. Arthur also played a part, over a number of years, influencing the building of the Diamond Creek Community Centre for use as a game and training venue.

Terry O'Connor

Terry O'Connor

A member of the O`Connor family who had a major influence on our 40 year history, Terry played Junior Domestic with Greenhill’s since the opening of the stadium in 1976 and went on to play Junior Championship with the Eagles from U12s to U20s, representing Victoria Metro in U16s, U18s and U20s in Australian Junior Championships in that time. Terry played with Eagles for 12 years in Senior Championships, captaining the team for 9 of those seasons, Terry was also member of North East Melbourne Arrows in the SEABL, playing with and against NBL level talent. He also contributed to Association as a Junior Championship coach for 2 season, and refereed for 5 years in the mid 80s in the Junior Domestic competition.

Margaret O'Connor

Margaret O'Connor

Margaret was an influential member of DVBA with all her 8 children either playing, reffing or coaching, whilst she volunteered in a range of areas across the Association, and also took up the sport herself!

Margaret was a key volunteer in the early days for the Eagles; assisting for numerous years in the Eagles Uniform Shop, sitting as a Committee Member and a fundraising volunteer for touring parties of junior teams that ventured interstate and to other countries such as New Zealand and USA.

She was a volunteer and key organiser for the Churinga Sports Day (Late 70s). This was an event which was held for intellectually handicapped basketball players and included fixtured games at the Diamond Valley stadium.

Margaret housed numerous imports that joined the Eagles senior team and educated them in the DV-Eagles way. She became their second mother and still to this day some of these players keep in regular contact from all areas of the world with her. Some of these people include Brook Gray, Jim Town and Ronnie Ryer. She regularly opened her house to billet junior players and families when they were visiting on interstate visits.

Avis Scullin

Avis Scullin

Beginning on the original steering committee, Avis has held a number of notable positions at the DVBA – from being Secretary in 1976 to spending over half a decade as President, and being the Tribunal Chair during the same time period. She was a key player in the running of the U16 Australian Junior Championships in 1986, the Diamond Valley Junior Easter Tournament, and went on to be a relied upon resource within the Civic League. Avis played a big part in inclusion programs for the disabled, including holding the National Wheelchair Games in the 80s at Diamond Valley. On court, she also spent time on the sidelines coaching the Melbourne United Stars in Senior Domestic. Best known in the craft of scoretable officiating, Avis set up the National Scoreable Association in 1989 and facilitated educational courses Australia-wide to deliver better accuracy in their function of scoring games. Avis is a Life Member of the VBRA and was inducted into the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame in 2007

Ross Clark

Ross Clark

Living much of his childhood, teens and adulthood at our stadium in Civic Drive, Ross has been a mainstay at our Association in many different positions – firstly as a Junior Domestic player with Telstar’s and Junior Championship player with the Eagles. Ross progressed to play for a number of teams in the Civic League, CVIBL for the Eagles and with the North East Melbourne Arrows in SEABL. Ross’s first job was as a receptionist at Diamond Valley, he has also refereed domestically, on and off, since 1985. As he entered his adult years, he delved into coaching where he has had incredible success over a long period of time with both boys and girls teams. His U18 boys won the VC title in 2012 and his U16 boys won the National Junior Classic in 2013. Ross has also represented Victoria as a Head Coach, winning 2 gold medals for the State and has coached at Basketball Australia’s Australian Development Camp at the AIS in 2012.


Brad Tucker

Brad Tucker

Son of John and Glennis who founded the Apollo Rockets  Basketball Club, Brad was a Junior Domestic and Senior Domestic player at the club, which included seasons in the Civic League where he was a multiple time All Star. Brad represented the Eagles in Junior Championship, was a member of the North East Melbourne Arrows, and most notably played 200+ games over a decade in the CVIBL/BL team to be the first ‘200 Club’ player at the Eagles. At the height of his career, Brad was approached to trial with the North Melbourne Giants NBL team. Brad has coached boys and girls teams at Apollo across 15+ years and spent a number of years refereeing at the Association in the mid 80s.



Brian Harvey

Brian Harvey

A well-liked character and long time manager of the Diamond Valley Sports and Fitness Centre. Brian was the founder of the renowned Civic League – regarded the best Senior Domestic competition in the State in it’s time, and the creator of the Great Australian Shootout – an elite tournament for U20s athletes that ran for a decade and included touring International teams from the likes of the U.S.A, New Zealand and China. Our link to lowa has been well publicized with Diamond Valley sending a touring Eagles team over to plav. Brian was highly influential in helping to progress the Association, from running programs for beginners on the mini court, to wheelchair basketball, to special needs basketball and being part of committees that helped the Eagles join the CVIBL competition and partner with Eltham to create the North East Melbourne Arrows. Brian also played and coached at both the Eagles and Parkside.



Sheelagh Nihill

Sheelagh Nihill

Heavily involved in the Watsonia heights domestic club, Sheelagh was a fundraiser, uniform coordinator and even coach in the Senior Domestic women’s competition. Sheelagh was also a Junior Domestic committee member and long-time Grade Secretary. She is notable for her extensive experience and contributions as a Scoretable Official, spanning from 1983 till today and covering all levels of the sport – from the Civic League, CVIBL and Big V just to name a few. Sheelagh also has received an award from Basketball Victoria for 35 years of service in the sport.



Vic Nihill

Vic Nihill

Also heavily involved in the Watsonia Heights domestic club, Vic was an accomplished coach in our Junior Domestic program for over a decade, beginning with Telstars, then moving to Watsonia Heights and winning championships along the way. Vic was on the Watsonia Heights committee from 1982-1990 and also played in our Senior Domestic men’s competition till the mid 90s. Trying his hand at Junior Championship coaching, Vic would educate himself as a coach by attending Melbourne Tigers games to sit behind the coach and take notes, and went on to Head Coach an Eagles U18 girls team to a championship. Vic has been a Big V State Championship Men’s Team Manager in the mid 2000s, been on our Tribunal panel, been preparing Big V post match suppers at games, and been a longtime Scoretable Official that spans till the current day.

Maree Marchant

Maree Marchant

Contributing to the Association for many years in a number of roles, Maree was the Basketball Administrator in the early 2000s, was a grade secretary in Junior Domestic and worked closely with our Junior and Senior Championship programs – being Chairperson for both for 7 and 12 years respectively, whilst holding the positions of board member, delegate and secretary of the VJBL and Big V competitions in that time. Maree sat on our DVBA Executive and was influential in the Eagles gaining initial entry into the Big V Youth League competitions and the growth and promotion of our Senior Women’s team to State Championship Women’s level. Maree was influential in beginning Player Development camps at DV in school holiday periods, beginning in 1999 and won the Lino Di Paulo award.



Alongside:

  • Lyn McClintock
  • Mike Kapnoullas
  • Deb Keogh
  • Lorraine Kapnoullas (posthumous)
  • Trevor Lee
  • Robert Maxwell
  • Wilma Hay (posthumous)
  • Steve McCabe