Basketball: Players get the coach they wanted

Kirstin Daly will this year become the first woman in Australasia to coach a men's national basketball league team.

The former New Zealand women's captain was yesterday appointed to guide Hawkes Bay in this year's NBL.

Hawkes Bay's decision was backed by the players, franchise management said.

"This virtually came through player pressure," said Bay's general manager, Jeremy Bayliss.

"They have practised under her during the pre-season and while we were holding back, wondering if this was the right move, they were urging us to run with it."

Hawkes Bay decided not to reappoint previous coach Curtis Wooten after last year's five-win 11-loss record and thought they had secured the services of former Tall Blacks mentor Keith Mair, who moved to Napier to take up a post with Sport Hawkes Bay.

But Mair accepted a job as chief executive of English Basketball and Hawkes Bay went back to the drawing board, naming Daly as assistant coach in the interim.

Now, she's running the ship.

"I think the guys have enjoyed the work I've put them through in the pre-season," said Daly, who turned down an offer to coach NBL side Wellington Saints last year.

"It remains to be seen how much they enjoy it when they're sitting on the bench, not getting many minutes.

"But I don't think the guys think of me as Kirst the female. They think of me as Kirst the basketballer and now they'll think of me as Kirst the coach."

Bayliss said Daly's gender was irrelevant.

"We want to take the emphasis off her being the first female coach," he said.

"That's not the reason she was selected. She was chosen because she is the best person for the job.

"Kirstin undoubtedly has the basketball knowledge, the players' respect and the competitiveness to make coaching her career."

Daly, an assistant principal at Taradale High School, comes from one of New Zealand most respected basketball families.

Her mother, Donnette, was the first woman to referee in the national league.

Daly's playing career culminated in her captaining the Tall Ferns at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

She admitted the chance to coach in the NBL came as a shock, but also a timely gauge of her abilities.

- NZPA