Everyone has their own journey; their own story. We all love to hear about the individuals that received knock backs and declines that fed their passion, continued to battle on and look to prove people wrong. With that in mind, comes the announcement of Christian Yammouni to the Eltham 2020 NBL1 season.

“Who?” would be a fair response from many in the basketball public. The Eltham Wildcats have a distinct point of difference over others in NBL1; it is the only club program with one direct player path from introductory level to the elite. This is where the story of 23yo Christian Yammouni is one that young Wildcat players can relate too.

Beginning in a similar fashion to most in the early 2000’s, passionate basketball father John would take his young boy along to be coached by the young club coaches in the Aussie Hoops program. The program was run on the outdoor courts of Eltham High School and John recalls Christian running around in the sun one week and then getting pelted with rain the next. “Every week Christian would ask Francine (mother of Christian) when he’d be able to play real basketball in there whilst pointing at the adjoining High School Stadium.”

It wasn’t long before Christian took to the Eastern Districts Junior Basketball Association (EDJBA) as part of the Eltham Wildcat U8 and U9 teams, travelling from Collingwood to Park Orchards and developing the early rivalries against the Bulleen Boomers. These rivalries continued for well over 10 years which coined the phrase “BEAT BULLEEN” as the two clubs met regularly in EDJBA Grand Finals!

As any talented young Wildcat does, Christian wanted to play ‘rep’ in the Victorian Junior Basketball League, joining as a bottom age U12 in the Eltham Junior Championship program and progressing all the way through the age groups.

When 3x3 was first formalised by FIBA, 16yo Christian and his Eltham mates travelled to Coffs Harbour to compete at the inaugural FIBA 3x3 Championships back in 2012. Having not been selected for any high performance programs by Basketball along his journey, Christian and his team mates set about creating their own opportunity; with this FIBA Oceania event being a unique opportunity to play international teams. It was a rare mix of clubs, school and international teams; with the Wildcat boys almost defeating the Australian national U16 3x3 team, losing by just 1 point in overtime in controversial circumstances!

A loyal group of Wildcats formed the 1996 born contingent of players, many of whom including Christian were Eltham High School students. They consistently finished in the 8th-12th range of the Victorian Championships from U12-U16. Heading into their top age U18 season, one of their ‘stars’ left the team to a rival, searching for a chance at winning a title… for the record, it didn’t work! Christian and his team were coached by Angelo Calcagno, a 7’ Italian with a high knowledge of the game, assisted by Paul Maley who spent many years coaching and mentoring Christian, in what many thought would just be another season; their final year before graduating for the senior program. In an age group that had been dominated by Bulleen and Knox since U12’s and players such as Ben Simmons, Deng Adel and Christian Petracca running around, it had been a powerful age group in Victorian basketball.

The team qualified for VC comfortably, but they didn’t have it all their own way. The same old story; they’d beat the weaker teams comfortably but couldn’t defeat the powerhouse teams, so were stuck in the middle. Gradually the team improved finishing 6th on the ladder. In the finals, the boys led by Christian took care of Blackburn, Dandenong and a Waverley team with NBA player Deng Adel in three knockout matches to setup a Victorian Championship Grand Final against the Melbourne Tigers. This team featured 5 Vic Metro U/18 State players as their starting 5 including our own NBL1 player Geremy McKay and NBL Melbourne Tiger Dane Pineau.

Eltham did what we know Eltham teams do; they never gave up, never surrendered, played hard, but played fair and did the club proud. Whilst the boys couldn’t pull off the final Cinderella story going down by 12 points; Yammouni had finished juniors in the form that would ready him for the next level; averaging 16ppg during the finals campaign.

At that point in time, Eltham’s Youth Men were in desperate need of some young talent, having finished second last in Victorian Youth Championship. Built around a young man named Julian Lipinski and some hard working players, the team needed to add some class, so in 2014 Christian Yammouni made his debut, the beginning of what became an impressive Youth Championship 5 year career.

Yammouni was well recognised in partnership with Julian Lipinski and fellow NBL1 player Sam Whelan to have led the Wildcats rebuild at this level, taking the team from a 5-14 record in 2014, to making the final four on back to back occasions in 2015 and 2016. Having missed most of 2017 due to his time at Ohlone College in California, Christian then teamed up with Sean Clarke, Mark Scherf, Ovie Magbegor and others to lead the team to back to back Grand Final appearances in 2018 and 2019.

Whilst winning the title was the thing that ‘got away’, Christian was awarded the Victorian Youth Championship ‘Most Valuable Player’ award in 2019, a sign it was time to complete the full Wildcat pathway and take his place in the NBL1 at the Eltham Wildcats Basketball Club.

The Christian Yammouni story is the real life example of the player pathway of the Eltham Wildcats Basketball Club. Never needing to wear anything but a red and black singlet, Christian has progressed from a 5yo in Aussie Hoops through the Junior Domestic and Junior Championship programs and then through the Senior Championship teams; the whole time wearing ‘Eltham Wildcats’ across the front of his singlet.

The 20 year Wildcat journey:

2001 Wildcats Aussie Hoops 2002 Wildcats Aussie Hoops 2003 First Domestic Winter Season 6yo in U9 Eltham 24 2003 Primary School competition run by Eltham Wildcats 2004 Every Clinic and Holiday Program run by Wildcats 2004-2014 Played every EDJBA Domestic Summer and Winter Season until he made Youth team 2005 -2013 Eltham Junior Championship program 2012 FIBA Oceania 3x3 Championships representing Eltham 2014 Eltham Youth Championship 2015 Eltham Youth Championship 2015/16 Ohlone College (USA) and Eltham Youth Championship 2016/17 Ohlone College (Team Captain, 1st Team All-Conference) and Eltham Youth Championship 2018 Eltham Youth Championship/ State Championship Men 2019 Eltham Youth Championship/ Eltham NBL1 squad member 2020 Eltham NBL1 team