Basketball Australia has named newly-crowned Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) Coach of the Year, Shannon Seebohm to guide the Australian under 17 national team, the Sapphires, to the 2016 FIBA World Championships.
Seebohm, who led the Sydney Uni Flames to the semi-finals of the 2014/15 WNBL season, has been named as Head Coach to take the young team to the Oceania Qualification tournament in Wellington, New Zealand in August 2015.
A victory in this tournament will ensure the Sapphires are a part of the prestigious FIBA tournament which saw the Australian’s finish 5th in 2014.
Head of the Australian women’s basketball program and Head Coach of the Jayco Opals Brendan Joyce, praised the appointment of Seebohm.
“Shannon is a great young coach, he has a passion and understanding of the game, but more importantly, he understands the way we want to develop these young players to be the Jayco Opals of the future.
This will see the Sapphires team adopting a similar style of play to the Opals, and while we of course would love to see the team win a medal at the FIBA World Championships, much of this role is about developing players who are able to step into the Opals program seamlessly.”
Sydney Uni has generously allowed Shannon to take time away from his Flames coaching duties during early days the WNBL pre-season to guide the team through the Oceania Qualification tournament.
