Rangers boss flags rebuild

By Paul Pickering
“DANDENONG will be a force again. And the sooner the better.”
With those words, Mark Wright last Friday announced his return to the Dandenong Rangers and declared his intentions.
Wright, who coached Dandenong between 1998 and 2002, will be back as head coach for the 2010/11 season, joining highly-credentialed assistant Cheryl Chambers – last season’s coach of the year with Bulleen – in a bid to rebuild the struggling WNBL outfit.
The two-pronged appointment is an early and bold statement from the club, which is determined to recapture the glory of back-to-back championships under Gary Fox in 2003/04 and 2004/05.
Dandenong Basketball Association president Charles Ryan credits Wright with setting the foundations for those championships, and last week said he was confident that one of the club’s favourite sons can do it again.
“In making this appointment, we reflected on the history of the Dandenong Rangers,” Ryan said.
“And Mark has been responsible for recruiting three of our best players in Penny Taylor, Emily McInerny and Carly Wilson.”
Wright left Dandenong to coach the Australian Sapphires under-21 side at the World Championships in 2002, before a stint as head coach of the NBL’s Victoria Giants.
And, after six years out of the game, he was pleasantly surprised to get a call from his old club recently.
“I always look back on my time at the Rangers as my best years in coaching, so it’s a great honour to be back,” he said on Friday.
Wright admitted that Dandenong’s recent decline had been “difficult to watch” from afar, saying he was keen to expedite the rebuilding phase.
He is impressed by the young talent at the club, but knows the Rangers need an injection of star power.
“I think it’s really import to get a franchise player in, so we’ll be as ambitious as we can be to try and get that first big signing – and we’ve got plenty of ideas,” he said.
Wright, a former NBL championship player with the North Melbourne Giants, said his group would be characterised by the tenacity that he has always demanded of his players.
“They’ll be a tough, hard and gritty group, and one that you’ll be proud of, no matter what the result,” he promised club officials and supporters.
Chambers, who also assisted Wright during his time with the Sapphires, said she was blown away by the infrastructure and facilities at Dandenong.
Meanwhile, incumbent Rangers coaches Dean Kinsman and Dale Waters have decided to pursue other opportunities, including their respective roles with the Australian Gems under-19 squad.