Super Woman Milo keeps making history for Mandurah

She will never admit this herself but Casey Mihovilovich is West Australian basketball's ultimate super woman and it's remarkable the level she continues to play at for Mandurah Magic ahead of her 550th game, but for her it's all about just focusing on what matters.

Not only is Mihovilovich the greatest player in league history having started her SBL career in 1996 at age 14 and now continuing to lead her Magic team in the NBL1 West ahead of her 550th game on Friday night at home to the Lakeside Lightning, but she's built a remarkable life along the way.

Just Mihovilovich's basketball career is more than enough to be proud of. She's already the games record holder and keeps building on that ahead of becoming the first person to reach 550 games having also won an MVP award, making five All-Star Five teams, the 25th anniversary team and being part of six grand finals.

In tribute to that, the MVP award is named in her honour, but that's only one part of the life she has built.

She is also a wife to Ben and mother to Will and Brock, and her love of Mandurah extends well beyond basketball and she's worked her way up to now as of this week, being the chief executive of the City of Mandurah.

If all of that doesn’t add up to being a super woman, then nothing ever will, but at the same time Mihovilovich is known as the ultimate competitor on the basketball court and the supreme professional off the court to have earned the universal respect of everybody. 

What goes through your mind about reaching 550

Mihovilovich is so solely focused on what she has to focus on next in life as she juggles her three great loves, family, basketball and Mandurah, that she didn’t realise her 550-game milestone was coming up this Friday night.

"I know this sounds ridiculous, but I was shocked when I found out it was this week because I'm not counting," Mihovilovich said. 

"So when the local paper called me on Monday and said it was my 550th this week, I told them they better check to make sure because I didn’t realise. Obviously every game I play I know I'm heading towards a milestone but I'm still shocked because I'm not counting."

Reflection isn’t something Mihovilovich spends much time doing simply because she doesn’t allow herself that luxury. Her focus on life is putting everything into her family, her basketball and working at the City of Mandurah, and looking back isn’t something life has a lot of time for.

"Because my life is so busy anyway, when I go to the court and play basketball or if I'm training or having fun with the girls and the team, I just walk away and then I'm focused on what I've got to do at home or when I get to work," she said. 

"It's not something I'm sitting around and worrying about in terms of reflecting on anything or what I need to do, it's all about moving on what's the next thing I need to focus on when I walk out of the stadium. 

"I just get on with it and do those things so I don't really have time to reflect because life just goes by so quickly, and there's so much going on. I don't really have time to go back and count or think about what I've done in the past because I'm just worried about what's coming next and that's where all my attention is."

Not limping to 550-game milestone

If you think about someone playing basketball for 27 years, then it's natural to think there must be dips along the way or by the end of that journey, maybe they are riding the bench and no longer playing the big minutes or a starting role.

Well, that simply isn’t something Mihovilovich would allow. She's either all in or not at all and if she felt she could no longer contribute for the Magic at a high level then she just would no longer be playing.

Despite battling whooping cough last year and an injury this season, Mihovilovich remains one of the most influential all-round guards in the league and that's something she's proud of even if she judges herself harshly.

"Over the last eight weeks I've actually had an injury that I've tried to nurse through. I'm at the end of that and am getting back to being able to run again," Mihovilovich said.

"I was limping for the first three weeks but I was getting through the games and I really had to because we just had such a bad run of injuries that I had no choice almost but to play. I wasn’t doing it well but at least I was out there for the team. 

"Last year I had whooping cough pretty much for the whole last three months so that wasn’t idea so at least this year it's just a soft tissue injury that I'm coming to the end of it. I do try and look after my body, and I keep saying I'm not the player I was 10, 15 years ago and I know I have no expectations to be that player. 

"But I am still having fun and I still want to contribute, and I keep saying that only if we the technology that we do today with all the games live streamed then everyone would have seen how much of a better player I was than what I am today."

Life organisation the key

Ask anyone about Mihovilovich and one thing that comes to mind is her strength of character and the high standards she lives by, but also just how organised is in every area of her life.

And let's be honest, you can't have the basketball career, professional career and build the family she has unless you have that commitment to being organised, and not letting distractions creep in.

"Time management has always been my strength and I'm very much aware of what wastes time, and I choose not to do any of those," she said.

"I don’t watch TV and I'm very rarely on social media and I choose that because they are time wasters, and they prevent me doing what I love to do. 

"That is spending time with family and I enjoy my work, and I love basketball so they are the three things that I try to keep balanced and I'm able to do that by not wasting my time with those other things. I am organised and I have to be and I think that's what allows me to keep doing things without having to sacrifice any of those three things that I love."

Culture behind sustained success

The one thing that still has eluded Mihovilovich in her career is a championship and it's absolutely not been through a lack of trying.

She has helped the Magic to make grand finals in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2017 and 2018, and there's been some heartbreaking losses in those especially the last one in 2018 against Lakeside when they had the game won before conceding the game's last 21 points.

However, again it's not something Mihovilovich allows herself to worry about because you can't change the past. What she's proud of is the culture built in the Magic's women's program over such a long time now that continues to give them a chance to compete for championships.

"I'm really proud of the culture that we've created and proud that the club has appointed always really great coaches, and that the coaching staff to be able to continue on the culture we've created," Mihovilovich said. 

"Anybody who has been in a high performing team knows that sustained success is built around culture and although we've never won a grand final, we have always maintained a performance of which is at a high standard. 

"When you add culture into that and that we've predominantly done that through our locals being the core group, that is what success looks like. I'm so proud of all the juniors that have been given an opportunity and continue to be given an opportunity to succeed, and to end up taking over what has been created in terms of our culture. 

"They will be the core group for the women's program into the future. That's what I'm really proud of and it means a lot that when I get to sit down in the crowd in five to 10 years' time that I can see that I'm supporting the locals that the association have built a club around. There will always be sustained success because of that and that's what makes our club so unique."

Another finals opportunity awaits

The Magic are now guaranteed of playing finals again in 2023 after Friday night's season-ending clash at home to Lakeside. 

While it's always a challenge not having a top four spot and earning a double chance, Mihovilovich knows anything is still possible even through not having a key piece up front Carly Boag won't help.

"We've made a grand final coming from eighth before, we've made a grand final after losing seven games in-a-row coming into finals and getting there that way," she said.

"So I do believe anything is possible and in this league, any team can beat anyone on any given night when you've got a range of talented players. 

"Missing Carly Boag after she tore her ACL does make it a little bit more difficult but we all have to step up, and know we have to step up to replace her as a collective. I just hope that everything can gel for us going into finals."

Not just basketball, City of Mandurah has her heart

It's not just the Mandurah Basketball Association that links Mihovilovich to the City of Mandurah, but it's her life's great love on top of her family.

She has now worked her way up to becoming the new chief executive for the city as of this week and she just can't explain adequately how much she loves Mandurah although if she could wear it on her chest every day, she would.

"If I could wear a shirt that says 'I love Mandurah' I would. It means everything to me. It's the people, it's the social fabric of the Mandurah community, it's the volunteering nature and the environment that the City of Mandurah has created that allows us to be a successful community," Mihovilovich said.

"You cannot take, you must give back as well and that's our motto we live by and that's embedded at the Mandurah Basketball Association as well. It is really something that a local government is built on is volunteering and the same with a basketball association. 

"The values are aligned and I'm really proud to be leading the City of Mandurah into the future, and being able to be a high performance organisation that delivers on vision of the community is something I'm really looking forward to the challenge. 

"This is my first official week as the CEO so when you work for a not-for-profit organisation like a government body and then the basketball association, it's all part of the community and that's what makes Mandurah so special the way we all come together."

Being joined by a new men's games record holder

It's amazing how fate works sometimes and on the same night that Mihovilovich becomes the first player in league history to reach 550 games, Seb Salinas will set a new men's record by playing his 513rd match when he runs out for the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

"That's fantastic, I didn’t realise that," Mihovilovich said. 

"He's a really great person too, Seb, and I'm really excited for him that he gets to have that legacy for the men. I think when you have a great person then the whole basketball community are really proud of his achievements. I'm really excited for him to break that record."

When Mihovilovich thinks back to the memorable night that she played her own 513rd game to set the women's games record last year, it was an occasion she'll treasure forever but more so because of what it meant especially to her husband and sons.

To then find out the MVP award would be named in her honour was the icing on the cake.

"My kids are so proud of me and were so proud of me on that night when I broke the record, and Ben as well," Mihovilovich said.

"Seeing them celebrating and their excitement was probably more rewarding than my own reaction to it because I'm not a person that counts numbers of games or anything. That almost feels like a participation award and i only want to keep playing while I'm contributing to the team the way I want to. 

"I think it matters when you're still contributing and that's why I was so proud when I made the record even with having two kids, going through COVID, a season-ending injury one year and everything else. 

"When I think of all that, I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved with all the other life experiences that have happened along the way too which probably took me out for four years in total. 

"I was proud to break the record on that night and also for Basketball WA to name the MVP award after me shocked me too. I'm so honoured by that and am so proud for that to have occurred, that might have been the biggest honour and shock out of everything."