Basketball New Zealand

Basketball New Zealand

Talent identification and programme development will be two of the major responsibilities for Basketball New Zealand’s four new Regional Coach and Player Development (RCPD) officers.

Mata Cameron (North), Colin Driscoll (Mid-North), Bill Eldred (Central) and Rachel Gwerder (South) will be charged with overseeing and implementing BBNZ’s player and coach development programmes with associations, along with age-group talent identification and national development programme duties.

Eldred is no stranger to BBNZ, working for the organisation in various roles for almost a decade from 1998-2007, while Cameron, Driscoll and Gwerder have all previously been involved in the national programme.

The RCPD officers will be the contact and support people for association staff conducting coach and staff development opportunities, will take leadership roles in the high performance development programmes, monitor players’ on-going development and will take director roles at BBNZ’s regional and cluster camps.

Cameron, mother of Tall Blacks captain Pero Cameron, will be responsible for the zone one region, covering Auckland, Waitakere, Harbour and Northland.

Based in Whangarei, Cameron was the Zena B Gay Award recipient for contribution to women’s basketball in 2002 and has a lifetime of coaching at every level in New Zealand basketball on her long CV.

She has been involved in junior coaching since the 1970s and with New Zealand Koru and national junior teams since the early 1990s and led Tai Tokerau women’s teams to national titles in 1999 and 2001.

Driscoll, also the coach and referee development officer for Counties Manukau Basketball, will cover zone two, which includes all Waikato associations, Counties, Taupo, Rotorua and Western Bay of Plenty.

Driscoll has been a long-time coach in New Zealand and Australia, mainly at junior age-group level. He has coached at national under-16 level, been involved in Koru tours for six years and also part of the Pacific Basketball tours, and has coached either secondary school or age-group teams since 1976.

American-born Eldred, an early import with Nelson in the early 1970s, will cover the zone three area, including the Capital associations, Manawatu, Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay and will share Gisborne/East Coast with Driscoll.

Eldred played and coached Wellington men’s teams in the old national championships and also played and coached the now-defunct Centrals in the National Basketball League.

He was assistant coach for short stints with both the senior and junior women’s national teams in the late 70s and 80s and returned to help the Wellington Swish to a women’s NBL title in 2001.

Dunedin-based Gwerder will oversee the entire South Island, working with major associations Canterbury, Otago, Nelson and Southland.

Gwerder, who has previously set up development programmes in Harbour, Waikato and Otago, has coached within the BBNZ junior programme for nine years and has been on eight Koru Tours. She has been a Junior Tall Ferns head and assistant coach, guided national age-group teams and worked as video coach for the Tall Ferns.