The Sharks play the Winter season of the Perry Lakes Hawks Junior Basketball Competition — broadly across school Terms 2 and 3. Exact start and finish dates are published on PlayHQ each season.

At the moment the club runs a Winter season only. Adding a summer competition takes more volunteers behind the scenes, which is the main reason we haven't offered it yet. The good news: the committee is considering a summer season for 2027/2028 — but we'll need volunteers to help get it going. If you'd be keen to lend a hand, get in touch. Stay tuned!

Registration is online through PlayHQ — start from our Register page. Fees are set each season and shown during registration; they cover competition team-entry fees, training court hire, player insurance and the club's running costs. Eligible WA families can put a KidSport voucher (a WA Government DLGSC program) toward the fee — apply for and receive the voucher before you register, as it can't be reimbursed by the club afterwards.

A season fee looks like a big number, but it covers a whole season — and much of it isn't the club's to keep. The fee brings together Basketball WA registration and player insurance, the Perry Lakes Hawks competition costs (venue and court hire, referees and running the competition), and the club's own component — weekly training court hire, coach development, equipment and trophies. Scarborough is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit club and keeps its own part as low as it can. Uniform: the club provides your playing singlet; the main extra is your shorts, bought through the club store (current prices are on the store page). Eligible families can also put a KidSport voucher toward the cost — check the current amount and eligibility on the KidSport for parents page.

PlayHQ registers players individually, so you can't sign up a whole team in one go yourself. If you have a group who want to play together as a new team, contact the club first — email registrar@scarboroughsharks.asn.au with the players' names, the age group, and a nominated coach — every team needs a coach to be entered. The club nominates the team into the Perry Lakes Hawks competition, and once it's set up each player registers individually through PlayHQ and is allocated to that team. Get in touch as early as you can before the season — team nominations close ahead of registration, and age groups and grades fill up.

Age groups run in two-year bands — U8, U10, U12, U14, U16, U18. As a general rule, your child plays in an age group they are under as at 30 June of that season. For example, to play U12 a player must be under 12 on 30 June that year. Because it's based on age on that date, two children born in the same year can sometimes fall into different groups depending on their birthday. The current groups are shown on the Register page and on PlayHQ — if you're not sure which group your child fits, ask us and we'll help.

Absolutely — we welcome players of all levels, from complete beginners up. Teams are sorted into divisions by skill through the grading rounds (below), so kids play others at a similar level. Get in touch early in the season and we'll point you to any come-and-try sessions.

Training is at Karrinyup Sports Centre. Games are played at Bendat Basketball Centre (Floreat) and Lords Recreation Centre (Subiaco), the main Perry Lakes Hawks venues. Your training night and game venues come from your team manager once teams are set.

As a general guide, the younger age groups play Saturday mornings, working through to U14 on Saturday afternoons, while U16 and U18 usually play Friday nights — all subject to the season's schedule. The exact day, time and venue depend on your age group and division and are published on PlayHQ (and the free MyHoops app). The competition sets the draw, so the club generally can't change individual game times — a request can sometimes be made, but it can't be guaranteed.

The club provides the playing singlet. Players buy their own shorts through our store, plus court shoes, a drink bottle and — recommended — a mouthguard.

Ball size is set by the competition and depends on age — and, at the older ages, gender:

Size 5 — Under 8, Under 10 and Under 12.
Size 6 — Under 14 (boys and girls), and Under 16 & Under 18 girls.
Size 7 — Under 16 and Under 18 boys.

Having the right size to practise with at home helps a lot — sports stores sell basketballs by these sizes.

Domestic: a player can register with only one domestic club per season (a Perry Lakes Hawks by-law) — so your child can't play domestic for two clubs at once. Moving clubs needs a clearance from your current club, so talk to us if you're joining the Sharks from elsewhere (or moving on).

WABL is separate. Playing WABL (representative basketball) for Perry Lakes Hawks as well as a Sharks domestic team is fine and common — it's a different competition. There is, though, a limit on how many WABL players can be in one domestic team (a points-based cap set by the competition), so teams can't be stacked with representative players.

When the club nominates a team, we place it in the division we believe best suits the team's skill level. Because teams change from year to year — players move on, age up or develop — that first placement isn't always spot on, so the competition (Perry Lakes Hawks) uses grading rounds to fine-tune it.

1. The first four rounds are grading rounds. They're used to check each team is in the right division, and teams may be moved up or down a grade during this time so games are fair and even.
2. Ladders reset at the start of Round 5. That's the official start of the regular season — so results from the grading rounds do not count toward the final ladder or finals. (Ladders reset even in age groups that have only one division.)
3. Regrade requests go through the club. If you think your team is in the wrong division, let your team manager or the club know. Only the club committee can submit a regrade request to the competition — individual teams can't — and there's a cut-off around Round 3. The club can ask for a team to move up or down.

Regrading is decided by the competition, not the club, and a request doesn't guarantee a move — sometimes a team turns out to be correctly graded once other teams shift around it. The aim is a fair, competitive season for every team.

Teams are ranked on a ratio, not on total wins. Because of that, playing more games does not push you up the ladder on its own — winning a higher proportion of the games you play does. Positions are worked out in this order:

1. Match Ratio (MR) — the main ranking. It's the percentage of your played games that you've won. A team that has played fewer games can still sit above one that has played more, if its win ratio is higher.
2. Head-to-head — if two teams finish on the same Match Ratio, the team that won when those two sides played each other is placed higher.
3. Percentage (%) — if teams are still level, it comes down to points: total points scored for, divided by total points scored against, multiplied by 100.

This is why a team can just miss the finals on percentage even when teams above them have played an extra game — the extra game only helps if it improves the ratio. The ladder rules are set by the competition (Perry Lakes Hawks), not by the club, so we can't change how positions are calculated.

View the live ladder on PlayHQ →

To play finals for a team, a player must have played at least five qualifying games for that team during the season. Qualifying games are regular-season rounds — the grading rounds (before the ladder resets) and byes don't count toward the five. This is a Perry Lakes Hawks by-law (By-Law 10), not a club rule, so it can't be waived. If you're not sure whether your child has reached five games, check their record on PlayHQ or ask your team manager well before finals — a late fill-in who hasn't played five qualifying games can't play finals.

First, talk to your team manager — sometimes a fill-in can be arranged. If the team genuinely can't play, the club lodges a forfeit with the games controller and the opposition. There are notice deadlines and fees set by the competition, so the earlier we know, the better. See the Forfeits page for how it works.

Yes — running the scorebench is shared by all families across the season, and your team manager will roster you on. It's straightforward, and the scoring links on this page walk you through it. Coaching and team managing are also volunteer roles: the club runs entirely on parent and guardian volunteers.

Yes. Anyone coaching or in a role working with the children needs a current Working with Children Check, as required under WA's Working with Children (Criminal Record Checking) Act 2004 — unless they're a parent or guardian of a child in that team, who are exempt. The club can point you to how to apply.

Start with your team's coach or manager for anything team-related. For club matters, the committee is on the Contact page. We're all volunteers, so a little patience is appreciated — but we're always happy to help.