Welcome to our new series of Big V Player Profiles! This week we chat to the Pakenham’s D2W star, Stephanie Pal.
Like a lot of Big V players, Stephanie Pal was so young when she picked up a basketball for the first time, she can barely remember how it all started.
âI was about six when I first started playing,â Pal elaborated. Â âMy older sister played, and I used to go and watch her on Saturday mornings. Â I canât remember if my parents just put me into a team to keep me active or if I wanted to join a team, but either way I’m grateful I started somewhere!â
Like most kids, initially Pal remembers loving the feel of scoring, but now the 23-year-old says her favourite part of the game has actually changed a bit over the years.
âAs a kid, of course you always want to be the one that scores because you donât understand that good defence or good passes can [also] make you a good player.
âI still love scoring – who doesnât?!,â Pal continued, âbut I think my favourite thing in the game now is a good blockâŚlike [a] sending the ball into the stands-type block.â
Palâs first basketball team was the DSD Dolphins, which still run today as a part of the Dandenong Basketball Association. It was from here that Pal first leapfrogged into representative basketball, playing for the Dandenong Rangers Under 12s.
âI started playing rep for Dandenong Rangers when I was 11, [and] I played my whole junior career there and two seasons with the [Big V] Youth League team. I felt that I wasnât progressing and there wasnât a clear path from Youth League into the next level (which was SEABL â now NBL1), so I went along to the Casey Cavs tryouts and got selected for the Division 1 Womenâs team.
âI felt a better opportunity arose for myself when I heard that Pakenham was putting in a [Division 2] Womenâs side [in 2019], and that is where Iâve been playing this season.
Whilst she openly admits that a career in basketball is probably not for her, Pal also acknowledges that after playing four seasons of Big V â and counting – that itâs much more that âjust a hobbyâ.
âI think once I moved to Casey and had a new beginning with a new club, I knew that I had to work hard to improve myself and my game and couldnât just be complacent. I canât imagine myself without basketball so although I donât want to make it a career, itâs still much more than just a hobby [for me].â
Being a part of an Under 14 National Championship-winning side â which then resulted in her being to go to a âChildren of the Worldâ camp in Turkey â would demonstrate just that, however Pal also likes to keep a well-rounded life when sheâs off the court.
âI just graduated from a veterinary bioscience degree, but am currently working as a puppy pre-school instructor,â Pal said.
âI [also] have a plant addictionâŚ[but] donât tell my mum, I told her itâs just a phase!â she laughed.
Just like Giannis Antentokounmpo â one of the many players she looks up to â Pal stays humble at any mention of future success.
âA goal this season is to win,â Pal said firmly. Â âBeing the first successful Pakenham Womenâs team would be an amazing feeling.â
With the Warriors currently sitting atop the Big V Division 2 Womenâs standings, theyâre in with a fighting chance.