By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE Pakenham Warriors basketball club has entered an exciting new era with the naming of its new coaching group for the upcoming season.
And overseeing the coaching group will be a 24-year-old familiar to many in the local hoops scene.
Darrell Morgan, who recently spent a year on the Perth Wildcats’ development squad, will act as the coaching director – keeping an eye on Warriors coaches from under-12s to the Big V teams.
Originally from Beaconsfield, Morgan played junior domestic basketball in the local area before moving on to Dandenong.
In addition to his time at the Wildcats, he’s also spent a year in the American collegiate system at Iowa, and with the Lakeside Lightning in Western Australia’s State Basketball League.
And while there’s a chance, he’ll lace up the kicks at some stage for the Warriors in 2015, it’s off the court – specifically in physical development – that he’ll be a real asset.
“I graduated with a degree in sport science, so I’m working as a physical preparation coach and doing a Masters in high performance sports training,” Morgan said at Cardinia Life on Sunday.
“As a result I end up working a lot with sporting clubs on strength and conditioning and that sort of thing, and I also work a lot with the general public with rehabilitation.”
Morgan believes he can give the Warriors a real boost, both with injury prevention and physical preparation – something that would set the organisation apart from many of its competitors.
“Just being here and seeing all the new uniforms and business shirts – there’s so many little things that they’re doing that just seem like this year is a turning point or almost a clean slate in many respects that we can just springboard from,” he said.
“It’s really exciting and for me the timing’s perfect.”
Warriors favourite son Jeff Reid has taken the Big V men’s team coaching reins from his own former coach at Pakenham, Ryan Rogers.
Reid is one of the best guards to have played in Big V Division 2 in recent seasons, but his playing career was cruelly cut short by injury.
Now, he’s putting all his energy into coaching a team he knows so well.
“I wanted to still be involved with the program and, not being able to play, this is a way of still being involved and I think I’ve got something to teach the guys and some tips and experience to pass on,” he said.
“I can’t wait. I’m not sure how I’ll go first time into coaching, but I’m looking forward to it and I can’t wait for the season to start.”
Reid said he was still working on rounding out his playing roster but his expectation in his first year as a head coach was for his side to be competitive in every game.
“If we have an inexperienced team on the floor, I want them to fight and play their hearts out,” he said.
“I expect, with the guys we have at this stage, to have a very competitive season and I expect us to probably make finals.”
Rounding out an impressive coaching trifecta is Darren Thomas, who will head up the Warriors’ brand new Big V women’s side.
“Coming from a basketball powerhouse in Ballarat, where numbers weren’t necessarily strong but we had the quality, to here becomes a challenge because we’ve got the opposite situation,” Thompson said.
“We’ve got a lot of kids that are keen to be part of it all, but whether they’ve had the direction to this point, I’m not sure.
“We’ve got some good people on board that are hopefully going to get us to where we need to go and create a positive culture, and for the women to know that when they come to Pakenham they’re going to get better.”
2015 PAKENHAM WARRIORS COACHES
Big V men’s coach: Jeff Reid
Big V men’s assistant: Jace Westland
Big V women’s coach: Darren Thomas
Big V women’s assistant: Patience Grayer
Under 12 1 girls coach: Dylan Cleven
Under 14 1 girls coach: Brett Williamson
Under 14 2 girls coach: Warren Dickson
Under 16 1 girls coach: Gio Fantin
Under 16 2 girls coach: Curtis Wheeler
Under 18 1 girls coach: Brendan Dickson
Under 18 2 girls coach: Madie Dunstan
Under 12 1 boys coach: Brett Small
Under 12 2 boys coach: Matt Maher
Under 12 3 boys coach: Craig Ellery
Under 14 1 boys coach: Justin Mazurek
Under 14 2 boys coach: Dylan Jones
Under 14 3 boys coach: Megan Tolley
Under 14 4 boys coach: Matthew MacDonald
Under 16 1 boys coach: Klaus Rottler
Under 16 2 boys coach: Doug Drew
Under 16 3 boys coach: Dan Tielen
Under 16 4 boys coach: Ash Jensen
Under 18 1 boys coach: Jace Westland
Under 18 2 boys coach: Braden Venning
Under 18 3 boys coach: Peter Williams
Under 18 4 boys coach: Bryan Jones
