Illawarra Hawks assistant coaches guest appearance at Basketball NSW SPP

Illawarra Hawks assistant coaches Shaun Roger and Lachlan Lonergan recently made an appearance as guest coaches for the Basketball NSW State Performance Program (SPP) Graduation Camp for the class of 2022 at Barker College. 

The SPP program is Basketball NSW’s high performance program in which they run camps throughout the year. The program involves participants in the Under 16’s & Under 18’s age group and is a key tool in identifying, developing and preparing young athletes to represent NSW at the Australian Junior Championships. 

Roger and Lonergan were among 54 coaches in attendance from various high calibre associations including the Sydney Kings, the Sydney Flames, the Canberra Capitals and the Centre of Excellence. The 150 SPP participants, from Metroplitan and Regional areas, were taken through their paces with various on court coaching sessions along with off court classroom sessions. 

Roger and Lonergan’s coaching focus were defence and skill development and for both, it was also a trip down memory lane to when they started as volunteer coaches. Their time at these events were a starting point for their careers and a pathway to higher tier coaching. 

Shaun was honoured to be asked to be a part of the Graduation Camp and had no hesitation with imparting his time and expertise.  

“Some of my fondest basketball experiences date back to my involvement in the various Basketball NSW high performance programs – some of my favourite are from the many SPP camps I was fortunate enough to attend.

It’s always a tremendously rewarding experience to interact with coaches and athletes who all share a common purpose of development and growth; this camp was no different.

A special thank you to Brett Coxsedge, Curtis Sardi and Jarrod Moore for the invitation.”

Lachie was also excited to volunteer at the camp and share his knowledge. 

“Being back at the BNSW high performance camps this weekend was an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Being around coaches and athletes that share common goals for growth and development is always enjoyable, made even more so as I got the chance to catch-up with many friends in the program. 

It was also exciting seeing some of the talent that NSW has in its junior athletes, I’m sure many of those athletes will be competing for professional opportunities in the future. 

Being asked to come to the camps to lead on-court sessions focussed on skill development gave me a great opportunity to share some of the knowledge I’ve accumulated over the past 3 seasons working in the NBL and I’m looking forward to being involved in the BNSW high performance program again in the near future.” 

Congratulations on the 33 Graduating athletes! The Illawarra Hawks are thrilled to be involved and help shape the future stars of basketball in NSW.