Conversation with a Gator: Staci Richardson

He’s also shown signs of an untapped offensive potential, with dominance on the interior as well as sneaky ball handling and playmaking abilities that will make you forget he’s built for rugby.

Richardson erupted for 14 points off the bench in Shepparton’s win over Gippsland United and that’s just a taste of what the Kiwi-born player has to offer this team.

This time last year the Gators weren’t even on his radar.

He hadn’t played competitive basketball for a while after returning home from college in the United States.

“I grew up in Echuca and I headed to Melbourne for the last two years of high school before going to community college for two years,” Richardson said.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of offers, it’s hard.”

He transferred to Clarke University in Iowa before returning home due to the pandemic.

“College basketball is a lot, it’s every day, so I was just burnt out,” he said.

Richardson had been visiting Echuca during his summer breaks and was playing rugby for Deniliquin.

“I was okay, pretty quick, they chucked me on the wing and I scored a few tries before I moved into the forward pack,” he said.

After making the move back home, he began playing first grade rugby for Leighton.

“I loved it, that’s why I was playing it,” Richardson said.

“But Leighton is four hours away and sometimes further if we were away, so that trip hurt a lot.

“I was also a bit over having to run into big blokes all the time.”

Richardson said he was scouted by Gators captain Matthew Bartlett.

”Matt hit me up to come along to a training session and I trained once and then they said to me they were keen and to let them know,“ he said.

Richardson has been playing ball in his local league and said the Gators might’ve looked up some of his stats before reaching out to him.

He said the prospect of playing with international imports Derek Murphy and Josh Kooiman excited him.

“At that point Derek and Josh were already coming and I looked them up and they were ballers,” he said.

“From day one they both brought some swagger, confidence was through the roof.

“Josh came first and already knew the players and it didn’t take long for him to start calling plays and become very vocal with the boys which was really impressive.”

He said he had spoken to some of his friends who also played in Big V and was told Shepparton was a good team every year.

“Straight away we just gelled. They’re all top blokes and it’s very social; It’s a family club,” Richardson said.

“I think I brought some camaraderie and respect having just come from rugby and I made an effort to really get to know the boys deeper than basketball.

“If you want to win, you have to play for each other.”

As a testament to the team’s culture, Richardson said following its narrow win over Warrandyte Venom the group had an in-depth conversation about how it was playing.

“We felt like in the last couple of wins we had just been winning because we had more talent, but we actually weren’t playing better than the other team,” he said.

“We would come out and play awesome and then take our foot off the gas and that’s not what we want to do.

“That just comes with knowing each other and we’re going to get better and better.”

Richardson said he had no plans for next year and that right now he was just enjoying his ball and being around his parents and brothers again.

“All praise to the team,” he said.

“We’ve got a team that could do it all.

“To the crowd and everyone that comes along to the games, we are going to be better and get better and better and I’m excited to see what we can do this year.”

• Shepparton Gators take on Collingwood All Stars at Shepparton Sports Stadium this Saturday at 7pm.