Who is missing?

Kallum Penn (injured U16 bottom ager)

But that's it..

I can think of quite a few names that are missing from both age groups but knowing how athletes are selected in this state at the moment, nothing will change in the short term. Unfortunately the elite programs in this state have turned into a "if you're not in the HP Manager's black book or are seen as outside of his weird yet persistent height requirements" then you are considered to be invited onto the program. Outside of the bronze at 16s two years ago and a runners up result for the 14s SCC metro boys this year, it's fair to say that under the current regime the state has considerably underperformed on the national stage for some years now. One only has to look at the amount of soft tissue and overuse injuries to several players in the system to question what is the purpose of having 12-17 year olds on court for five hour camp sessions on back to back days, which seems to be how every FDP, SCC and SPP is preferably run by BWA at present - I have never heard of other sports doing anything similar to this on a regular basis at the elite levels, yet BC seems to think it is the only way forward but results at nationals would say otherwise. Maybe he needs to either check that rather large ego of his and actually do something productive and meaningful for our kids in this state, or give the job to somebody who will. At least then he can finally go back to the east coast, which it has been widely known he has wanted to do for some time now.

Spp is a program UNDER Nitp. Settle down muppets

Not true Luke.

The NITP list is picked FROM the SPP list.. so all athletes are already on those lists at the top of the thread.

a lot of big names missed? there are "big names" amongst 13 -16 year olds? hardly.

The SPP programs, whilst good in concept are quite backward on the world stage. They talk of "downhill" basketball and show their kids “uphill” action in plays. Talk about hypocritical!

99% of coaches who go thru the program are complete flops, are exploited at both wabl leve and sbl level (if they even make it). This is not helped by the fact they have no interest in assessing who the best coaches in WA are, rather judge their merit by who kisses BC ass the most. This leads to utter failure later on as the knowledge is not there. Over rated and under delivering is the constant theme for 25 years.

If you are a player, forget about it and go play NCAA ball for real development .

The fact the SPP coaches get regularly punished at wabl level show the evidence they are terrible and the dregs. Speaks for the quality of BC- just judge the (non) results

100% agree with KC, the state team process is just a glorified schoolyard popularity contest whereby BC picks and chooses by way of lips to ass, whilst he makes inappropriate comments for example about some other coaches and players physical features, to any one who will listen and boost that previously mentioned ego of his - Is this what we as a state want from the person in charge of our elite athletes? One only has to look at next year's appointments to understand where the logic is at. After using Andy's offenses to win a bronze two years ago, the 16s coach was found wanting on home soil this year yet is rewarded with the same age group again in 2018. BC clearly rewarding mediocrity as TT is one of his favourites along with DD previously with the 18s, what happens if he fails again next year in Queensland? The non-results are clear for everyone to see BC, how long before the frat party for a HP program is finally given the new breath of fresh air it so desperately needs?

Given how they like to run gruelling 5 hour sessions contrary to best practice guidelines worldwide.. if one of these athletes suffers a serious injury does this make BC and these so called "fountains of knowledge" legally liable in a court of law?
Surely they have a “duty of care” towards their athletes or run the risk of being sued.

Really anonymous?

No coach has ever 'borrowed' something before? ;)

Results are not always the best indicator of progress.

Less bitterness, more focus on the people that matter.

The athletes.

This thread is full of parents who have had kids not make squads/teams, take all of this with a grain of salt.

Who's BC, TT or DD. All sounding bitter. Whilst I agree with Tyrone (ahh TT ?) regarding results not necessarily being the best indicator of progress I also have seen some very good coaches have very good results ie. G Gurr. M Keene etc. And like some of the current coaches, these guys did not have the cattle either.

What is the best indicator? Maybe the development of players? On that alone they all rank F-

IMO the best indicators would be a combination of both player development and coach development.
This could only be assessed by someone independent who has been around the program for some years and has really good basketball knowledge and experience.
There will/has always been disgruntled parents and players. There are also coaches around these programs who will never be up to WABL standard let alone anything higher. But .... they are all volunteers. There are times when the crop of SPP coaches is not strong. That's life.

The players you mention above were not developed by the SPP program. You are taking due credit from their clubs and coaches.

Ofcourse the players are a product of their clubs and coaches, everyone starts somewhere!
Don't know much but I'm pretty sure they don't get picked straight from their clubs to the AIS, its from State team programs.

Two of the best '04 boys were injured & pulled out

5 of them made it.

Ducas: Born and bred Geraldton product. Key influences would be his old man who's one of the better coaches up there, Scott Rubery, Ray Evans and Mark Heron when he was development officer and buccs head coach up there. BWA had some influence sure, but not as much as these four would have had in getting Alex to Canberra
Grida: Coach's Oatman and McCormick get all the plaudits here, much more than any state team
Beard: Two brothers who are SBL players as well as Utley, Samuelson and some good coaches down at the Flames. Again, not a huge BWA influence

We get where I'm going here. General consensus if you ask half the parents involved with SPP or FDP in this state is they aren't fans of Brett for various reasons, or that as mentioned a couple times earlier in this post that the five hour training sessions are not just ridiculous compared to rest of the world practise, they are downright dangerous. Cute how Tyrone jumps on here to indirectly stick up for BC whilst trying to turn the conversation away from him or his purple circle coaches, of which we know you clearly are one of. If WA don't medal next year at more than one tournament, surely those on the BWA board will see it's time for a change and a new high performance and development direction, as the current regime just is not working

My point is that the SPP provides a stage setting on which these athletes get noticed by AIS, etc. This in itself is a good thing, but let's not confuse developing players with dressing them up, showing them off and claiming credit for the skills and abilities..

Please..

A few people on here need to realise a few facts about the constraints that BWA operates under, these are:


1) Court Space and cost of hire. Yes BWA are a tenant of Bendat but the operating costs of the venue mean that the domestic competition, wildcats, Lynx bookings take up court space, so running SPP 2 hour sessions twice a week cant be done. Court space across metro WA is an issue.


2) WA is the biggest State. We have nearly 50% if the SPP athletes come from regional WA. To have Country come into the city during weekdays is impossible so the only way SPP camps can be run to have all players together is weekend camps (5 hrs per day). You will find this happens in regional Victoria SPP camps as well. 


3) BC can only choose from the coaches that attend SPP and apply for State Teams. These coaches may not be the 'best' in WA but they are the volunteers that give up to over 150 hours of their spare time to try to improve your child whilst the so called expert coaches sit back and do nothing. How about some appreciation to the coach that you are not paying for.


4) The WABL competition is 10 years behind every other state in its grading. We are beginning to catch up but WABL needs to be elite where the best play the best in weekly competition. This has not been happening with blow out scores in many age groups.


5) BWA only has 1 high performance Manager. BC works over 50 hours a week including many weekends to teach your child on a wage that you could get from Aldi! Tell me would you do his job for that? SA has 3 HP coaches for metro and country regions.  Would you be happy if we increased your childs WABL fees to bring on another HP coach?


6) WA state teams are at a disadvantage. All other states (except NT) play each other in prep tournaments prior to Nationals, this is a significant disadvantage in getting quality lead in games as well as scouting and performance identification. Parents complain about the current costs of the State program let alone add a further $3k to total.


WA Basketball is what it is due to the poor WABL competition structure previously, lack of real competition and parity in the WABL leagues and our lack of exposure to other states. Brett has done an amazing job and some people forget the state it was in prior to him coming over. We have more National athletes than ever before in Australian camps. Brett has a big say in this, working in the background with Australian coaches to promote WA athletes.  He also helps many kids get identified at the college level.


So perhaps parents should direct their frustrations to your local association and ask them what are they doing about the development of their coaches so as to improve the standard of WABL. WABL players are just not as talented or competitive across the board compared to other states.  Better coaches = better skill development = better competition.  This is not the HP Managers responsibility to upskill the local WABL player or the local WABL coach.

Didn't take long for BC to respond. Not gonna to lie I probably would too if people were calling for me to lose my job because I was upset I didn't give them a coaching gig or picked their child in a program

^^^Thanks Brett.

I think in these threads we sometimes don't see the other side of the coin.

I don't have a kid anymore in those programs but I couldn't complain at how they were run or handled in the past. could they be improved sure but you just gotta do what you can I spose.

It's good to get a response, however please allow me to retort.

Don’t bitch to me about your wage or lack thereof. Feel free to disappear if you don’t like it. I think you are grossly overpaid as it is. Let’s be honest, you only feel this way because you cannot game coach and aren’t good enough to coach seabl or nbl level. That’s why they pigeonhole you in a place you hate. You have reached your level of incompetence.

You say that "so called expert coaches do nothing"- who are you referring to? Do you even know who or is this another generic lash out? I know of a coach who regularly attend practices with overseas professional teams and NCAA colleges and learn more about the game in several hours than you will likely ever know in your lifetime. And yes they coach wabl. These are professional coaches on the world stage not “so called experts” they are learning from. They are not frustrated Aldi workers either which is saying something isn’t it? I do not consider you a professional coach.. far from in fact!

The condescending tone from above would be acceptable if this was a coach with achievements and accolades but we are talking about an administrator with a personality problem, no more.

Truth be told, could he even coach in the wabl and be considered amongst the elite? The jury is out for mine and I can only judge from the quality of what he is teaching the kids, again quite backward on the world stage.

KC you obviously know Brett. Why not raise your concerns and feelings with him than post on here, pretty poor form mate.

I'm over here in NSW and remember Brett, he is one of the more qualified HPMs in the country maybe the most out of the current crop of them. I suggest you look into all he has done.

Are we talking about a different BC here?
If BC is actually Brett Coxsedge, how can you tell someone with AIS, NBL, NCAA experience and head coached an Australian team. Also Won a bunch of medals with NSW at nationals, that he probably couldn't Coach in the WA junior league is pretty absurd. You lose credibility with the rest of your statements sprouting off stuff like that. Makes us think you’re just another parent who is upset their kid didn’t make one of his teams.

When has Brett ever tried to take credit for developing any of the state kids? I'm pretty sure we all know how this works. Clubs help develop the players, the better players make state teams, from there the better state players make AIS and national teams. State teams and State run programs are just icing on the development cake to most athletes. This is the same in every state. Why is it an issue here in WA?

Wow!! This KC guy must have a really great knowledge of basketball to be able to judge/denigrate a coach as he has. Perhaps KC could put up his basketball credentials for us to judge. A personal attack on BC like this on here really shows KC to have no balls.
PS. I don't know BC and have had nothing to do with anything he has done.