Basketball New Zealand

Carrie Graf calls the shots at Tall Ferns practice, 2003 (Photosport)

Former Tall Fern coach Carrie Graf will face her old team next year after her appointment as head coach of the world champion Australian Opals.

Graf will lead the Aussie women through the 2010 FIBA World Championship, to be held in the Czech Republic, and the 2012 Olympic Games in London as part of her four-year appointment.

First, though, she must take on the Ferns in next year’s FIBA Oceania Championships, hoping to reclaim bragging rights after the Kiwis’ victory in their last encounter at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic test event in April.

Currently head coach of the ladder-leading Canberra Capitals in the ADF Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL), Graf was named WNBL Coach of the Year in 2007 and 2008. She has won five WNBL Championships as head coach and five as a player.

“It’s no secret that Carrie has wanted the Opals head coaching job for some time and it gives us great pleasure to announce that her time has come,” said Basketball Australia chief executive Scott Derwin.

“The Opals have achieved great success over the past decade and we expect that tradition to continue under Carrie’s leadership.”

Graf takes over from Jan Stirling AM, who stepped down from the Opals head coach position after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where Australia won a Silver Medal.

The Opals won Gold Medals at the 2006 FIBA World Championship and 2006 Commonwealth Games and achieved two Olympic silver medals under Stirling’s leadership, but the United States continues be the Opals’ nemesis.

“Overcoming the might of the USA at world championship and Olympic competition will be our main challenge,” Graf said.

“However, with strong leadership focused on building team unity in an effort to overcome a more talented opponent at the critical time, it is do-able.

“We must and will find ways to win.”

Graf coached the Tall Ferns in 2003 and faced arch-rival Stirling at the Oceania Championships in Tasmania. At the time, their 55-69 loss in Game One of that best-of-three series was the closest New Zealand had ever come to toppling the Australian women.

But she surrendered the job to mentor Tom Maher after being offered the head coaching position with the WNBA Phoenix Mercury, where she spent two years at the helm. Maher took the Ferns to the 2004 Athens Olympics quarterfinals.

Last year, Graf guided the Australian Universities team to a gold medal at the World University Games in Bangkok.

She surpassed Maher’s coaching mark for total wins when Canberra won their opening game of the 2008/09 ADF WNBL season in October. Her WNBL career coaching record now stands at 193 wins and 63 losses from 256 games, ahead of Maher’s 182 wins and 55 losses.

Graf was the Opals assistant coach at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (bronze medal), 1998 FIBA World Championships (bronze) and 2000 Sydney Olympic Games (silver).

She was awarded life membership of the ADF WNBL in 2006 for her outstanding contribution to basketball as both a player and coach.