Gerard Hillier – Coach of The Year

The Southern Peninsula Basketball Association would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Director of Coaching and Pathways on his “Owen Hughan – Male Coach of The Year” Award at the recent Basketball Victoria Country Annual Awards.

During 2017-18, Gerard excelled both with his u16 team from the Southern Peninsula Basketball Association as well as with his u18 State Team.

Hillier’s achievements with both of these teams have been a result of long, ongoing work over a number of years.

The u16 Women at the SPBA is a group of athletes that Gerard has now coached for 3 years.  At u12s this group won Metro 1, at u14s they were a VC team and by the time they got to bottom age u16s, they were a National Junior Classic team, clearly illustrating the effect that Gerard’s coaching has had on this team.  To add to this, the same group has recently had 4 players selected into the Basketball Victoria Country u16 Women’s State Team as well as an emergency for the same team, 5 players in total.

Gerard’s involvement with Basketball Victoria Country State Teams now spans 6 years, however, it was the 4 years he spent with the 2017 u18 Women that best signifies the impact that his coaching had.  Winning the Gold Medal at the Australian Junior Championships in 2017 with the u18 Women was the outcome of 4 years of work with the majority of the team.  Having started with a number of those athletes at bottom age u16s, Hillier developed the team into a National Champion by the time they reached top age u18s.  Similarly, to the u16 team that Gerard coaches at Southern Peninsula, the State Team has also had a number of athletes selected for the next level after being coached by him.  4 of the players from that team have now represented Australia in International competitions, whilst another 2 have been selected to Australian team squads.

The constant between these two teams is the years of work that is put in before some of the outcomes start to show.  It is not just the countless hours put in, it is the number of years’ worth of work that builds the success.  In the words of a very wise man, Gerard Hillier “Hard work works.”