Basketball ACT has gone back to the future as Canberra's high-performance teams enter a new era.
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The Canberra Capitals Academy team has been rebranded as the Canberra Nationals ahead of the 2019 NSW Waratah League season following the folding of the SEABL.
Links with the newly-crowned WNBL champions remain strong with rising Canberra Capitals duo Keely Froling and Abby Cubillo set to be the Nationals' trump cards, while former Capital Kate Gaze is set to return in April from an anterior cruciate ligament tear.
Basketball ACT president Allan Yates says the time is right for the high-performance program to return to its former moniker after the SEABL folded to give Australian basketball's second-tier landscape a major facelift.
"Stepping into the Waratah League, it’s a new competition we’re moving into. We just felt at that time it was a reason for a name change," Yates said.
"Nationals was the original name of that program. The high performance committee suggested it, and the board discussed and approved it.
"We’re working with the Caps, we’re really happy with the result they’ve had and we’ll be meeting with them in the next few weeks to talk about the partnership going forward.
"We think it’s fantastic, what has happened [with Canberra claiming an eighth WNBL title last week]."
Canberra's move into the Waratah League puts Froling and Cubillo on a collision course with WNBL teammate Hannah Young as the off-contract rookie returns to the Newcastle Hunters.
Waratah League-championship coach Jen Lonergan has been handed the reins with Canberra desperately chasing their first taste of playoff basketball.
"The squad has some wonderful leadership, blended with some of the exciting young talent coming through the BACT pathway, so this is a challenge we are all very positive about," Lonergan said.
"Personally, I am really looking forward to coaching key signings Kate Gaze, a former WNBL player, as well Keely Froling and Abby Cubillo who are fresh from winning a WNBL championship."
The Nationals rebranding comes after Tony Plunkett was appointed head coach of the Canberra Gunners as they look to rebound from a forgettable 0-20 season.
Plunkett is keen to strengthen the program's link with the local basketball community as well as develop ties with the Illawarra Hawks in the hope both sides can benefit from a Marshall Nelson-style arrangement.
He sees the shift in the national basketball landscape - in which Victorian and Tasmanian clubs have linked up with the Canberra-based Centre of Excellence in the new NBL1 - as a perfect chance to solidify the Canberra program's future.
The Gunners will open Canberra's Waratah League campaigns against the Bankstown Bruins at Bankstown Basketball Centre on March 9, before the Nationals lock horns with the Bruins immediately after.
