Posted on 19 August, 2010
Chambers who has committed to coaching Kilsyth again in 2011 will send the SEABL working with the Gems and as an Assistant Coach with the Dandenong Rangers WNBL.
Basketball Australia Release
After a successful playing career spanning 261 WNBL games for Melbourne East, Coburg, Bulleen Boomers and Melbourne, where Cheryl has since been made a life member of the WNBL, she moved into a very successful coaching career.
She helmed the Bulleen Boomers WNBL team from 2002 to 2009 leading them to a Grand Final appearance in her final season, where the Boomers ultimately fell to the Canberra Capitals. She also was awarded two WNBL Coach of the Year Awards, in 2004/05 and 2008/09.
The current appointment is just another accolade in a coaching career that continues to go from strength to strength.
“I was very flattered,” said Chambers of the appointment. “It’s an honour to coach any Australian team. We’re pretty well respected in the world of women’s basketball, so I’m really ecstatic and excited about the opportunity.”
Cheryl also has a wealth of international experience, offering her services to the Gems in an Assistant Coaches role between 2002 and 2005, as well as an Assistant Coach to the Opals between 2005 and 2006. And it’s these experiences that Basketball Australia’s High Performance General Manager Wayne Carroll says made Cheryl the number one candidate for the role.
“Cheryl has been a highly successful coach both at the national level and within our international programs,” said Wayne Carroll. “She has been an assistant to the national program, WNBL Coach of the Year and we think she is going to be a very highly competent leader for this group of girls in their quest for qualification for Chile,” said Carroll.
“The series against NZ are always competitive and our participation in these games are an important part of the development of our players, and we think Cheryl can provide the leadership to get that group there.”
The Gems will be getting together for a training camp between 28 and 30 August, where Cheryl will put the squad through their paces before they head to New Zealand for the under 19s World Championships commencing September 17.
“I look forward to the challenge of getting the group together to try to do a good job,” added Chambers.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be on the Sapphires coaching staff and the Gems coaching staff and the Opals staff, so I’m lucky enough to have had a lot of international experience and I loved it. The intensity and the excitement of it, it’s definitely something that I wanted to pursue and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to do that.”
