Jason Chainey is an Australian Basketball Coach fulfilling one of his dreams in working as an Assistant Coach with the Washington State Cougars women's team in Pullman, Washington USA in the Pac-12 Conference in NCAA Division 1. He joined Head Coach Kamie Ethridge and Associate Head Coach Laurie Koehn on staff in March 2019.

Jason spent over two decades coaching at the highest levels in Australian professional basketball, being an assistant coach with the Adelaide Lightning in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) from 2016-18. Prior to that role, Jason was Head Coach of the South West Metro Pirates in Brisbane QBL women's team (2016-17), and with the Logan Thunder WNBL team including four years as the team's head coach from 2009-2015. In 2013, Jason's efforts were recognised as a finalist for the WNBL Coach of the Year award. Jason has spent several years assisting at the Phoenix Mercury WNBA Training camp with Australian Opals and Phoenix Mercury Head Coach Sandy Brondello.

In this interview, Jason gives some fantastic insights into his role at Washington State, and the recruiting, scouting and athlete development work that he and the coaching staff undertake. Hailing from Brisbane, Queensland, he talks about his early days in coaching in Brisbane and Bundaberg, and the experiences in coaching in the WNBL and QBL.

You can keep up to date with the Washington State Cougars women's team season at: https://wsucougars.com/sports/womens-basketball

Greg Fox is one of the Gold Coast's most successful basketball products, having been a Gold Coast junior representative player and Queensland State rep in Under 16's and Under 18's. Greg went on to a short college career as one of the first Queensland basketball players to receive an athletic scholarship and attend a college program at Atlantic Christian College in North Carolina. On his return to Queensland, he caught the eye of Brisbane Bullets Head Coach Brian Kerle and played for the Bullets in the NBL from 1998 to 1992.

From his NBL career, Greg finished a Health Science Degree from Griffith University and then began working in sports administration for Basketball Queensland, Ipswich Basketball, the Australian Sports Commission and Runaway Bay Basketball Association on the North Gold Coast. Greg has recently started his own coaching business XPress Basketball and is running clinics throughout January and school Term 1 in 2020, with the next clinic being held 13-14 January 2020 at Coomera Rivers State School. For more information on Greg's coaching services, contact him on [email protected] or on Facebook or Instagram at @xpressbasketballgc .

In this interview, Greg discusses the early influencers on his basketball playing career, playing for the Brisbane Bullets amongst NBL legends such as Leroy Loggins, Larry Sengstock and Ron Radliff, and how he is delivering a youth mentoring and practical goal setting program with youth basketball players through XPress Basketball.

Dale Ryan is an Australian Basketball Coach working overseas as a Project partner - international coach and player development with Valencia Basketball Club in Spain. Dale is a former Qld Basketball League Head Coach with Northside Wizards and Brisbane Capitals, and was Assistant Coach to Head Coach Joey Wright with the Brisbane Bullets from 2003-2008, and headed up the Bullets Optimus Academy Program for youth players. Dale has also been active with youth teams including roles as Assistant Coach with the Australian mens Under 19 team, and various Queensland junior rep teams.

Dale played basketball in the late 80's where he played in Victorian State teams, was involved in the ITC program, along with participation in countless club and rep teams, with a high in 1987 with a 4th place at the Australian Junior Championships. He then set his sights on the NBL becoming a Development Player for the North Melbourne Giants who collected a Championship in 1994, along with playing in the Victorian State Basketball League for 9 years (1992-2000). He talks in this interview about the coaches he had during this time and their influence including Doug Trahair, Ken Watson, Mike McHugh, and Brett Brown.

Dale talks in this interview about his experiences growing up playing basketball in Victoria, the observations of coaching the British Under 18 3 x 3 team, and the work he is doing with Valencia Basketball Club in Spain. For more information on the coaching and player development programs Dale is working on, contact him at Assist Basketball http://assistbasketball.com.au/ or via [email protected]

Clarence "Pop" Dickerson is one of the Qld Basketball League all-time greats, playing with the Toowoomba Mountaineers during the 1980's and 90's. He attended Elon University in North Carolina, USA before transferring to the University of Hawaii from 1979-82. On June 29th 1982, the Washington Bullets selected him in Round 5 of the NBA Draft in round 12 (104th pick overall out of 225 draft picks). Other players drafted in 1982 were: James Worthy #1 to LA Lakers; Dominique Wilkins #3 to Utah Jazz; and Eric "Sleepy" Floyd #13 to New Jersey Nets.

Pop ventured from Hawaii to Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia in 1986 and played a lead role with the Mountaineers who experienced great success in the period from 1986 to 1992, with the team winning back to back State Championships in 1990 & 1991 under Head Coach Harry Spencer. He averaged over 30 points per game over 10 seasons during that time.

Pop was also Head Coach of the Gold Coast Warriors in the ABA and also the Toowoomba Mountaineers in the Queensland Basketball League (QBL).

Pop is the founder of the Supercamp, a 5 day live-in basketball camp held in Toowoomba, which in 2020 is in it's 32nd year. Details on Supercamp can be found on: https://www.supercamp.com.au/ and the 2020 Supercamp will be held from the 12 to 16th January 2020.

In this interview, Pop talks about his high school, college and NBA draft experiences and the events that brought him from Hawaii to Toowoomba to play in the QBL. We talk about the continuing success of Supercamp and the great coaches he has had assist to ensure the ongoing success of that program over a long period of time.

Rod Anderson has been Head Coach of the Townsville Heat men's team from 2015 and is also Head Coach of the Queensland North Under 18 mens team. Rod began his coaching in 2010 as Assistant Coach & Scouting/Technical Coach for the Townsville Crocodiles in the NBL. Rod was Assistant Coach for the Townsville Heat from 2010-2014 with now Cairns Taipans NBL Head Coach Mike Kelly.

Rod was selected as 2016 QBL Coach of the Year and then coached the Heat to back-to-back QBL State Championships in 2017 & 2018. Rod is an active Twitter contributor (@DJ_Rod) and in this interview, speaks about the early influences on his coaching career in Townsville from the Suns through to the Crocs and now the Townsville Heat.

Rod is now into his 10th season with the Heat and talks about off-season recruiting and team preparations, his thoughts on junior basketball development and his thoughts on the current 2019/20 NBL season.

Michael (also known as V-Dogg) is a Brisbane (Queensland) local coach who started coaching at West Brisbane Falcons when he was 16. He has coached all age groups from under 10s to under 23s over 28 years of coaching within the Club, Association, State league and NBL levels. He was an apprentice Coach/Manager with the Brisbane Bullets NBL mens team in 1996-1997 under Head Coach David Ingham.

In 2020, Michael will be in his 9th season as a QBL head coach, having also been head coach at the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, as well as coaching many successful Brisbane Basketball junior and senior representative teams. Michael was an Assistant Coach for the 2019 Brisbane Capitals men's team which won the QBL state Championship, under Head Coach (and former Australian Boomer and Brisbane Bullets Assistant Coach) Sam McKinnon.

In this interview, Michael talks about his role as Head Coach for the Brisbane Capitals 2020 NBL North women's team, recruiting activities, and his thoughts on team building and utilising youth players in his roster.

Sandy Brondello is the Head Coach of the Australian Opals and Head Coach of the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA. Sandy is a 4 time Olympian, winning 2 silver medals and one bronze, and is one of Australia's all-time best shooting guards. She played in 4 World Championships with the Opals, winning 2 bronze medals. Sandy attended the Australian Institute of Sport from 1986-1987, and first played with the Australian Opals at age 18. Sandy played for 10 seasons in the Australian WNBL, reaching the playoffs on three occasions and being named Most Valuable Player in 1995 as a member of the Brisbane Blazers. She also played between 1992 and 2002 in Germany for BTV Wuppertal, winning ten national championships and the 1995-96 FIBA Women's European Champions Cup. Sandy had a strong WNBA career, playing in 1998-99 with the Detroit Shock, 2001-2002 with the Miami Sol, and in 2003 with the Seattle Storm. She was inducted to the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Sandy started her WNBA coaching career in 2005 as Assistant Coach of San Antonio Silver Stars, and became head coach in 2010. In 2011 she then worked as Assistant Coach with the Los Angeles Sparks, and became Head Coach of the Phoenix Mercury in 2013, and won the 2014 WNBA Championship with a WNBA record 29 win/5 loss record, earning her the WNBA Coach of the Year.

Sandy was appointed to Head Coach of the Australian Opals in April 2017, and in this interview, we caught up on a 2019 Christmas visit to Australia and talked about her playing days, her role as a WNBA Head Coach, and the preparations underway for the Australian Opals in the lead up to the 2020 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in February in France, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in July.

Chris Riches is the current men's Head Coach with the Ipswich Force in the Queensland Basketball League, now in his third season in that role since 2018. Chris has also been the Head Coach of the Ipswich Under 21 men's team from 2016-2019, Assistant Coach for the Ipswich Force QBL men's Team, Head Coach Breast Logic women's Intensity Super League Team 2011, Head Coach for Gold Coast ACC women's program 2011, and Director of Coaching, John Paul College (Brisbane) from 2010 to 2011.

Chris is the founder of the basketball website Functional Basketball Coaching https://functionalbasketballcoaching.com/ and actively keeps this site up to date with articles and research.

In this interview, I talk with Chis about his coaching philosophy, preparations for the upcoming NBL1 North season, the importance of developing junior players within the Club ranks, and how Chris uses statistics, scouting and technology such as Hudl (https://www.hudl.com/en_gb/), which is the preferred platform for video editing in the league. Chris also recently took on the role as President of Ipswich Basketball Association, and speaks about the focus for junior player development in the interview and the impact and expectations of import players into the local community.

Mat Gane is President of the Maranoa Basketball Association in Roma, Queensland. Roma is 515 kilometres (320 miles) west north-west of Brisbane, Queensland, and has a population of about 8,500. Roma is a large rural centre supporting the cattle and other agriculture, coal seam gas, and is home of the Big Rig. It has regular temperatures over 40 celsius (104 Farenheit) in summer and below 0 celsius in winter.

Mat has been hands-on in the establishment of the local basketball association for over 4 years, and has been instrumental in the growth of the Association from 0 to 200 members. He is an active coach and has worked to increase the number of children participating in grass-roots basketball clinics at schools throughout the Maranoa catchment (an area roughly about the size of Victoria).

In this interview, Mat talks about the challenges in coaching in outback Queensland, the importance of showing local kids the basketball pathway through running clinics and meeting their NBL idols, the Brisbane Bullets, and the way in which the Maranoa Basketball Association are growing their membership through actively giving children opportunities to participate.

Warwick Cann is the General Manager, Game Development with Basketball Queensland (BQ). Warwick has been an All-Australian Youth coach, coaching at the elite level for youth representative teams in New South Wales and Queensland, and has been involved with WNBL and NBL teams across Australia. He was also the United Kingdom National Teams Director with British Basketball and more recently was the Director High-Performance with the James Cook University Townsville Fire in the WNBL.

Warwick has recently produced a Basketball Queensland Style of Play document which provides an excellent framework for coaches to maximise the opportunities for athlete development, coach development and teaching. "The BQ style of play is a vision for how BQ want to play and is guidance to the Associations to help develop their Queensland representatives. It is hoped that it leads to a greater appreciation of the need for better technical skill development rather than relying on gameplay for athlete development."

In this interview, we talk about Warwick's teaching background, his extensive and well-travelled basketball career and the influences and vision he has for basketball in Queensland.