Basketball New Zealand

Basketball Nelson chief executive Chris Varcoe (Photosport)

Wayne Martin, Nelson Mail
Chris Varcoe didn’t chase the vacant Basketball Nelson chief executive’s job because the Blue Chip Nelson Giants won this year’s New Zealand NBL title.

It certainly made his move more attractive though after relinquishing the Basketball New Zealand field development officer role that he held for four years.

Varcoe replaced the association’s former chief executive, Daryl Fenemor, three weeks ago after Fenemor returned north for personal reasons.

And like Fenemor, Varcoe has no specific hands-on dealings with the Giants - now under new coach Chris Tupu - although he does expect to maintain a close liaison with the franchise in terms of utilising the players’ coaching talents.

“We’ll hopefully use the Giants for our coaching in schools programme and role model visits,” said Varcoe. “We’ll ride on their shirt tails of course with their profile.

“Hopefully they’ll help us out with whatever coaching aspects we require throughout the season.

“Having an NBL franchise situated in town was certainly a bonus. I think if you’ve got that pathway from junior all the way through to NBL it’s certainly a lot easier to sell your members your concept.”

Originally from Northland, Varcoe moved to Dunedin in 1994 where he completed a double physical education and commerce degree. He was with the Sport Otago regional sports trust for five years and joined forces with Basketball New Zealand before heading to his current role in Nelson.

As a player, Varcoe represented Northland as a guard from 1976 to 1989, taking over the coaching role from 1989 to 1991. He also coached the Otago University team.

The move to Nelson offered him the opportunity to get involved in sports management and besides enhancing the association’s existing structures, he has also put new development programmes in place.

“In term four we have already put in place junior development work for years one to six which is running quite well. They’ve got good numbers there.

“We’ve also implemented an under-13 and an under-15 development league. Numbers are slow to start with but as with any programme, we have to build it up and hopefully word of mouth will get out there.”

Long term, Varcoe is prepared to bide his time before determining any major new initiatives.

“I’m looking at a three-year plan at the moment to make sure that the infrastructure here at the association is going to be self-sustainable and not dependant on gaming machine trusts.

“We’re putting structures in place that will allow us to grow and offer services to the membership that will help that development side of it.

“Once I can get through the first year, I guess I can get a good handle on what programmes or initiatives need to be implemented. So I’m really in a `wait and see’ situation to see what works and what doesn’t work. I don’t want to change too much if it’s not broken.”