In early 2005, Laurents Paluoja became the 531st player to debut for the Woodville Basketball Club, and from the very first moment he stepped onto the hardwood, a star was born. Laurents made his debut with WOODVILLE in Grading 3 of the Autumn 2005 season with the
Under 10 Jets. Laurents did not score in a 6-17 defeat. Laurents scored his first career points in Round 1, his 2nd career game, by scoring 6pts in an 8-10 loss.
Laurents would power through his debut season, achieving a first season output of 60 points in 14 games at an average of 4.25ppg. His season best was 12 points, scored in Round 11, which was a 20-10 victory. In his debut season, Laurents would score 36% of the Jets points.By the end of 2005, Laurents had begun showing serious potential, as evidenced by his second season return of 90 points in 13 games, an average a tick under 7. Beginning 2006 in the Under 12 Sharks, Laurents was the standout player in a team that struggled for consistency. Over the course of the Autumn 2006 season, Laurents was starting to solidfy his skills. Through the Autumn 2006 season, Laurents played 16 games, and scored 122 points, passing the 100 point seasonal milestone for the first time. Spring 2006 would see the most significant change in Laurents' basketball career. In the Spring 2006 season, not only did he gain a new coach, but his team game and passing awareness picked up immensely, as a consequence of a new all-round basketball focus, Laurents' defence became very good. A hand is quicker than the eye pounce on the ball and the willingness to now chase down opponents with the ball was contributing to Laurents' offensive abilities. If it were thought not possible, then Laurents created the impossible by improving his game 200-300% throughout Spring 2006 as he and his Sharks team-mates made a late surge for the finals, albeit missing out by 1 game. In Spring 2006, Laurents would record his first 30pt game, a 32pt effort in Round 2. He played in all 15 games, and scored 211 points, at the average of 14.1ppg. by the end of 2006, Laurents was beginning to be thought of as one of the most dominating players in the age group.
If by the end of 2006, he was thought of, then his opening to 2007 absolutely confirmed his status as a phenom. Laurents opened 2007 with games of 33pts, 27pts, 30pts and 30pts to have an average after 4 games of 30ppg. This was also the only time in club history that a player has scored 3 x 30pt games within 4 consecutive matches. 2007 marked the arrival of the L-7 with the force of an atom bomb. Throughout Autumn 2007, Laurents helped guide the Sharks to a perfect 20-0 record in Under 12 Division 2, along the way, playing all 20 games, and scoring a new personal best 311 points, a game high of 33 and an average of 15.55ppg.
In the second game of 2007, Laurents scored his 500th career point, in his 60th game. Laurents' 60 games is the 15th fastest in club history for reaching the 500 point milestone.
It were thought that in 2007, his team-mates would catch up and that would be the emphasis of improvement in the Sharks team, but Laurents took his game to a completely new level, improving incredibly to become as much of a superstar as one can be at 11.
In the Autumn 2007 finals series, Laurents and the Sharks did not give the opposition a sniff, with Laurents scoring 16pts in a 31-7 2nd Semi Final win over Iramoo, and then in the Grand Final, scoring a fantastic 24pts in the 49-8 massacre of Corpus Christi Bulls to bring home Laurents' 1st Premiership.
In Spring 2007, the Sharks began in Under 12 Division 1 but moved to Under 14 Division 4 after Round 5. In Round 7, the team's first game (Round 6 was a Bye) in Under 14's, Laurents amassed a career high 40 points as the Sharks thumped the Good News Power 81-4 to welcome themselves to the age group. The Sharks would win 11 of their 12 games in Under 14s to finish the regular season in 2nd position. Despite losing the 2nd Semi Final to the Woodville Wave by 26pts, (12-38), the Sharks would bounce back hard firstly in the Preliminary Final, defeating Hoppers Hawks 29-25 to set up a rematch with the Wave. Down by as much as 10pts in the Grand Final, the Sharks took a 5-6 minute window of opportunity to close out the game with a sensational spirited fightback led by Laurents, to over-run the Wave and take out the first ever Back-to-Back Premiership double in Woodville history, 40-34.
Laurents was sublime in the finals series, and a dominant, unstoppable force in the Grand Final. His 43pts for the finals series was complimented by a massive 26pts in the Grand Final. In 2007, Laurents had played in two Grand Finals for a return of 50pts, a Grand Final average of 25ppg. In October 2007, Laurents and the Sharks played in the Great Western Tournament. In 3 tournament games, Laurents scored 39pts, including his 1000th career point in the first Qualifying Game, a 3pt-er scored from the deep left baseline late in the game.
On May 31st, 2008, in his 129th career game, Laurents scored 15pts in a 61-16 Woodville Sharks win to pass 1500 career points. By reaching this milestone in his 129th game, Laurents is the fastest player in Woodville history to reach 1500 career points, smashing the previous record by 24 games.
Laurents and the Sharks played off in the 2008 Great Western Tournament. The Sharks posted a 5-1 record at the tournament, reaching the grand final, coming runners up to Salvos Saints, 30-32. Across the weekend, Laurents would score 83pts in the 6 games, with his 150th career game occurring in the Grand Final, as the Sharks recorded wins of 39-21 (15) (Salvos Saints), 54-19 (Altona Pirates Raiders) (10), 49-30 (St Peters Bears) (10), 63-32 (Bay City Lakers Storm Clouds) (24), 45-3 (Craigieburn Eagles) (17) and 7pts in the Grand Final.
SATURDAY MAY 23RD, 2009 - Laurents scored 22pts for the Woodville Sharks in a 62-33 win over Hoppers Tigers in Round 7 of the Under 14 Division 1 Winter 2009 season to reach his 2000th career point. Laurents became both the youngest player (13) and the fastest player (175 games) in the history of Woodville to reach the 2000 point milestone. He also moved into very elite company becoming only the 5th player to pass 2000.
In October 2009, Laurents and the Under 14 Sharks played off in the 2009 Great Western Tournament out of Altona and Keilor. Through 5 games, the Sharks went 2-3 to reach the semi final stage of the the Tournament, defeated by Salvos Saints 24-40.
Laurents would be named the Team MVP and finished the tournament with a team leading 69 points from 5 games, including a 21pt game and a 19pt game where he hit five 3's.
In the final game for the Sharks of 2009, Laurents would play his 200th career game. One of the youngest players in club history to reach 200 games, Laurents would stamp the game with 4 game winning free throws late in the game to finish with 5pts in the Sharks' 36-34 win over Flames. This game was Round 13 of the Summer 2009/10 season.
On April 24th, 2010, Round 2 of the Winter 2010 season, Laurents scored 15pts for the Woodville Sharks as the Sharks recorded the 3rd highest score in club history, defeating Iramoo Demons 107-6. The Sharks also set the greatest winning margin in club history with the 101pt win, with Laurents scoring both the 100th point and the 100th margin point.
Laurents became the fastest player in Woodville history to reach 2500 points on Tuesday, June 1st. Playing his 226th career game, and bettering the old mark by 6 games, Laurents scorched 25 points for the Woodville Sharks in Round 5 of the Winter 2010 season as the Sharks ran up a 65-30 win over St Andrews Raiders.
Laurents played his 250th game on Saturday, September 18th, in the Winter 2010 Preliminary Final. Laurents scored 13pts as the Woodville Sharks moved through to the Grand Final by defeating the Woodville Jaguars 66-18. Laurents became the 28th player to reach the 250 game milestone.
For the first game of 2011, Laurents piled up 22pts as the Sharkz defeated Cambridge Cannons 58-26. The 20th point Laurents scored for the game was Laurents' 3000th career point. Laurents has become only the 4th player to reach 3000 points, achieving this in his 270th career game, the 3rd fastest behind Jordan Hughes' 264 games and Ashwin Kumar's 269 games. Laurents has however, become the youngest player to reach 3000 points, at 14 years, 10 months.
On Tuesday, July 19th, 2011, Laurents played his 300th career game. Laurents is the 15th player to reach the 300 Game milestone, scoring 19 points for the Woodville Sharks as the Sharks defeated Woodville Flight 42-32 in Round 7 of the Winter 2011 season.
Laurents' highest points total in a season has come in the Autumn 2007 season, playing with the Sharks in Under 12 Division 2, Laurents scored 311 points from 20 games at an 15.55 average. Over his career, Laurents has registered 45 games of 20+ points, his career high being a whopping 40pts.
Throughout his career, Laurents has also scored 10 or more points in a game on
180 occasions.Even more amazing, at aged 15, Laurents has already recorded 10, 30+pt games. In 25 finals games Laurents has scored 300 points at an average of 12.0ppg. Laurents has scored a club record 125 points in his 7 Grand Final appearances, equating to a phenomenal grand final average of 17.9ppg.
Laurents played for the Sharks in the 2011 Great Western Tournament. The Under 16 Sharks would record a 5-0 result and win the 2011 Tournament with a 48-40 win over Point Cook Allstars in the Grand Final.
Laurents scored 13pts in the Grand Final and returned 57pts from 5 Games as he and the Sharks won their first Tournament and Woodville's 4th Tournament title.
Over Laurents' career, which is still currently active with the Under 16 Sharks and Under 18/20 Sharkz, a career now spanning 6 years, Laurents has played for 10 WOODVILLE teams. He has played for the JETS, SHARKS, JAGUARS, RAGE, THUNDER, DRAGONS, RAPTORS, MONSTARS, WOLFPACK and HURRICANEZ, ranging in age groups from under 10's through to under 18/20's. Laurents has played in seven grand finals, with the first two coming back to back in Autumn 2007 and Spring 2007, with number 3 and 4 coming in the same season, in Winter 2010 with the Under 16 Sharks and Under 18/20 Sharks, number 5 in Summer 2010/11 with the Under 18/20 Sharks and number's 6 and 7 in Winter 2011 with the Under 16 Sharks and Under 18/20 Sharks. Laurents has played in 5 Premierships, the first two, a back to back special, with a 49-8 win in Autumn 2007 over Corpus Christi Bulls (Laurents scoring 24pts) and a 40-34 win over Woodville Wave in Spring 2007 (Laurents scoring 26pts), the 3rd in Winter 2010 with the Under 16 Division 2 Sharks, winning 35-15 over Flames Explosion (Laurents scoring 10pts), with the 4th and 5th coming back to back in the Summer 2010/11 season with the Under 18/20 Sharks, defeating St Andrews Strikers 55-47, with Laurents scoring a team high 17 points and in Winter 2011 where the Under 18/20 Sharks defeated Woodville Flight 53-44, with Laurents scoring a game high 23pts.
In the Spring 2007 Grand Final, Laurents was a participant in the third ever ALL-WOODVILLE Grand Final, where the Woodville Sharks played off against the Woodville Wave for the Spring 2007 Under 14 Division 4 Premiership. Now in his 35th season, Laurents has scored more than 100 points in a season on 14 occasions, recording season scores of over 200 points on 8 occasions.
Historical comparisons are hard to judge, however a simple equative look at Laurents and some of Woodville's biggest ever names suggest that the best ever may have arrived.
445
and counting....
and counting....