By JARROD POTTER
KEYSBOROUGH Cougars Basketball Association has gained the services of former Dandenong Rangers elite programs manager Mark Hewish to coach their women’s teams.
Hewish – formerly at Dandenong and coaching the Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team – wanted to help guide the Cougars to the top of the Melbourne Metropolitan Basketball League (MMBL) and use the winter and summer competitions as a springboard to get Keysborough women into the Big V.
“They proposed a pretty good plan for where they were heading and what they wanted to achieve,” Hewish said.
“That was attractive to me – being such a young club – and a good opportunity to help and develop their club goals – it was enough to pull me out of my retirement so to speak.”
“Since I left Dandenong three or four years ago, after I finished with Beijing and all the bits and pieces there – I wasn’t really looking to do any more – but Keysborough pulled me out so that I could become part of this plan.”
Already with a talented selection of junior Cougars to build the team around, Hewish wants to finish off a Big V calibre team with a couple of recruits to finish off their women’s program planning.
“The plan is to identify a core nucleus of young players from within the club and within the boundaries of our charter – to start this year in the MMBL and complement the bulk of that group with targeted recruiting to get us into the Big V in 2014,” Hewish said.
Keysborough’s coaching director Nathan Vogt was thrilled to get Hewish on board for the upcoming year.
“We are really excited to have Mark come on board,” Vogt said. “Mark has been involved with basketball at almost every level and seems to be excited to be able to get involved with a growing association.
“We have been impressed with the professionalism Mark brings to our association and look forward to seeing him grow our Women’s program.”
Keysborough squares off in a MMBL preliminary final against local rival Casey Cavaliers this Wednesday night at Doncaster Rec Centre for a chance to face Sunbury in the grand final next week at Waverley.
