Hawkesbury Basketball have recieved their grant by for wall padding

Player safety is of the utmost importance to the HDBA and with the grant, the club will have the ability to install new wall padding on its main courts.

Ms Templeman attended a Hawkesbury Jets training session on Thursday, February 7 and presented the club with the cheque.

She congratulated the HDBA for making the investment in player safety.

“Basketball is an energetic game and players do find themselves running off the court from time to time,” Ms Templeman said.

“It’s great to see the club putting player safety first.

“It’s a big investment that the club is making and it’s great to be able to support them to make these courts a safer place to play," she said.

“I’m really pleased to be able to help out with this $10,000 Macquarie Stronger Communities Grant."

Head coach, Cleo Pickard, said that there was too little room between the court and the wall for a lot of players to stop on the club's main courts.

This has led to many players receiving injuries from making contact with the wall at both ends of the court.

“We’ve had people, when they’re on the court, they tend to run into some of the walls,” Ms Pickard said.

“They don’t stop fast enough. There’s not enough distance at the end of the baseline, so the game plan is to put padding on both ends of the court to save not only the kids, but the adults who keep running into walls,” she said.

Ms Templeman said the Macquarie Stronger Communities Grant program was a wonderful way to help local sporting and community organisations provide improved facilities for their members and the wider community.

“It’s fantastic to be able to help provide such valuable safety equipment that will continue to serve local players for years to come,” she said.

HDBA has been fundraising for wall padding for a number of years now and the grant would allow them to host higher levels of basketball competition, the club stated.