Lesley Pilling

Words kindly provided by basketballscotland:

It is with great sadness that basketballscotland acknowledge the passing of Davie Gilmour, a highly influential and much-loved member of the Wheelchair Basketball community in Scotland and across the UK.

Davie originally began his basketball career playing with the Inverclyde Colts Wheelchair Basketball Club before moving to the West of Scotland. When the Lothian Phoenix was formed in 2006 Davie found his home.

He was a key squad member and took the role of Captain. As a 1.0 player Davie could set the best technical picks against the biggest, strongest players in the league and come out winning. He was part of numerous playoff teams and of every Phoenix team that was promoted through the leagues to division one.

When the Phoenix formed their second team in 2008/9 Davie stepped up and took the role of Coach with his best friend Rab O’Rorke. He was not only a key person on court but helped drive the committee in both the secretary and chair positions for a number of years. He also supported the development of Scottish junior basketball as a coach and manager.

One of his personal favourite games to play in was the hotly contested Scottish Cup between the Phoenix and the West of Scotland, as they were known at the time.

In honour of Davie, the Lothian Phoenix retired his playing number knowing that no one else could ever get away with the good-natured cheek he gave to opposition and referees alike.

Davie is such a huge loss to the basketball community and will always be Phoenix #13.

He is survived by his wife Laura and three children Arianna, Lochlann and Shayla. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

British Wheelchair Basketball announces Nacsport & AnalysisPro partnership at its inaugural Premier Division Conference.

It has been an incredible season for many of the UK’s top flight wheelchair basketball teams, as three squads embarked on EuroLeague campaigns, Premier Division mid-season games were live streamed by the BBC and the league prepares to welcome new teams for the 2019/20 season.

As the sport looks to the future and its ambitious plans to establish a professional wheelchair basketball league today’s partnership announcement will prove critical in this preparation.

Nacsport & AnalysisPro will provide British Wheelchair Basketball’s premier division and GB performance teams’ access to state-of-the-art performance analysis software which will support and enhance coaching practices across all teams, facilitating improved effectiveness and overall performance.

Alongside access to the Nacsport Basic Plus video analysis software with KlipDraw Animate telestration tools integration, the partnership aims to work with the British Wheelchair Basketball club network to form fruitful relationships with local universities. The opportunity will unlock valuable hands-on elite analysis experience for studying sports professionals, as well as providing clubs access to a previously unexplored resource.

Alongside the education partnerships, which are seen as long term relationships for both universities and clubs, the British Wheelchair Basketball / Nacsport & AnalysisPro agreement also includes the provision of a comprehensive education and training programme.

Delighted to welcome Nacsport & AnalysisPro into the British Wheelchair Basketball family as its Official Supplier of Sport Performance Analysis, Chief Executive Lisa Pearce commented:

“This is a pivotal moment for our sport, we have top-flight teams with world-class players who have previously been unable to access video sports analysis capabilities. Not only does our partnership with AnalysisPro extend the opportunity to use the fantastic Nacsport and KlipDraw software, we have worked with them to ensure that it can be effectively utilised by developing localised relationships and focusing on training.

“We have a five year target on realising our ambition for a professional wheelchair basketball league in the UK, I am delighted that AnalysisPro will be by our side supporting our clubs, teams, players and coaches on this journey.”

Josh Bryan, Manager at AnalysisPro, shares Lisa’s optimism for the future and adds:

“Access to our Nacsport and KlipDraw tools will allow British Wheelchair Basketball teams to film their games and then use our software to clip, notate, highlight and analyse the footage to better understand and review their performances. 

“The integration of performance analysis into domestic clubs is sometimes viewed as a luxury rather than a necessity, and we can fully understand this as many clubs are heavily volunteer reliant. However, the partnership with British Wheelchair Basketball beautifully resolves this by forming mutually beneficial relationships with local universities.

“We are very proud to officially announce our partnership with British Wheelchair Basketball – we are looking forward to a very positive future enabling the sport to realise its professional league targets.”

British Wheelchair Basketball is delighted to announce the appointment of Kirstin Furber, Jules Parke-Robinson and Dr Craig Boyd to the Board of the National Governing Body, effective from 1^st July 2019.

The appointments will be the first board recruitments under the leadership of new Chair Professor Philip Wilson, and signals a bold strategic move by the NGB as it doubles the presence of Non-Executive Director’s on its board from three to six. 

The three new Non-Executive Directors will bring to the board extensive professional expertise from the performance sport, cultural change and military worlds and will support British Wheelchair Basketball’s Board in driving and cultivating the organisation’s ambitious strategic vision through to Tokyo 2020 and beyond.

Kirstin Furber brings to the board an accomplished career in people development and organisational transformation, previously holding senior CPO/Director positions at ClearScore, BBC WorldWide and 20^th Century Fox. 

Jules Parke-Robinson joins the board with an extensive professional background in the Military specialising in leadership, change management, governance and people development.  Jules received the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in 2014 during her service as Head of Military Police among British Forces in Afghanistan.

Dr Craig Boyd has excelled in academia with focused sports research on athletes with Cerebral Palsy (CP). His world class performance credentials have also seen him deliver support at both the Beijing and London Paralympic Games. Craig is the Programme Lead for Sport, Physical Activity and Health at Manchester Metropolitan University.

On announcing the new Non-Executive Director Appointments, British Wheelchair Basketball Chair, Professor Philip Wilson commented:

“We are exceptionally privileged to welcome individuals of such professional calibre onto the British Wheelchair Basketball Board. We were overwhelmed by the interest in our Non-Executive Director positions and humbled by the internationally recognised talent that our ambitious sport has attracted.

“Without question British Wheelchair Basketball has an exciting and positive future. Enabling the sport to draw on the expertise, knowledge and networks of our Board is essential. To have attracted world-class talent to our board as we drive the strategic direction of the organisation and instigate change is undoubtedly critical.

“I am delighted to welcome Kirstin, Jules and Craig to the British Wheelchair Basketball family.”

GB Men’s Head Coach Haj Bhania recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Last weekend, the worldwide wheelchair basketball family celebrated the news that GB Men’s Head Coach, Haj Bhania is to receive an OBE for services to the sport.

A well respected figure across Paralympic and Grassroots sport, Haj has dedicated over twenty years’ service to wheelchair basketball as both a volunteer coach and as a coach within the GB Performance Programme.

As a GB Coach Haj has consistently brought medal glory home to Great Britain – including Paralympic, European and World Championship podium positions. His unique approach to coaching has drawn world-wide attention to the new generation of player being nurtured under his direction.

Haj began his wheelchair basketball coaching journey within Aces Wheelchair Basketball Club where he credits excellent mentors as being the main reason for his career success. His international coaching career began on a voluntary basis in 1997 when he was appointed Assistant Coach to the GB Junior men at the inaugural Wheelchair Basketball World Championships in 1997 in Canada.  He continued in this voluntary role for the next 10 years, experiencing success with the squad and supporting player progression into the senior team.

Influential in the development of each of the GB squads Haj was appointed full-time Head Coach of the GB Juniors in 2008, whilst simultaneously taking up the post of GB Senior Women’s Assistant Coach the same year. The following year his progression into coaching of the senior squads began with his appointment to GB Men’s Assistant Coach.  

Haj’s coaching style enables greater sharing and collaboration with the athletes, allowing them to contribute and take ownership of their own and the team’s development.

Haj is a qualified wheelchair basketball coach, tutor and also a basketball coach. He has played a key role in up-skilling coaches on the pathway, supporting the development and delivery of the Grade 3. Haj has ensured that GB sessions are open to coaches within the sport to widen understanding and gives coaches the opportunity to ask questions to develop their own coaching practices.

He attends the BWB club conference every year and has committed to travelling around the UK delivering open sessions to participants at Regional Performance Centres in order to further develop coaches within the sport whilst connecting with people across the country.

On sharing the news of his OBE Haj expressed his gratitude to those who have supported his journey and commented:

“I always believe that the success of the GB Men’s Team and my success as a coach would not possible without the support of the many; the value of the unwavering support from friends and family cannot be underestimated.

“My entire aim as a coach is to enable the athletes to become the best in the world – we were successful at last year’s World Championships but the standard of play is always evolving and we need to constantly adapt to maintain our status as one of the best teams in the world.

“I enjoy being able to continue to deliver coaching workshops to our grassroots clubs and domestic team coaches. These individuals are responsible for nurturing our GB athletes of tomorrow – I was incredibly privileged to have excellent coaching mentors when I began my journey in wheelchair basketball – it is an honour now to pass this knowledge and support onto British Wheelchair Basketball’s network of coaches.

“Thank you to everyone for their very kind words and congratulations over the last few days, as I mentioned earlier this achievement has only been possible with your support”.