GOLD COAST (Australia) - The participants of the Tournament Coaches Course for Female Coaches reunited online with special guest, Australian Women's National Team Head Coach, Sandy Brondello.

The current Opals Head Coach made herself available to help the participants learn and improve their coaching skills with a roundtable discussion in an online forum organized by FIBA's regional office in Oceania.

Annie La Fleur, a former teammate of Brondello in the Opals and FIBA in Oceania Development Manager supervised the meeting while discussing the value of learning from a decorated coach.

"I think it was a great opportunity for our female coaches to learn from one of the best. Sandy was happy to hop on a call with the group and answer multiple questions and share her experience," shared La Fleur.

Brondello a 4-time Olympian who won 2 Silver Medals and Bronze Medal in her time donning the Opals jersey stayed on the call for more than an hour to discuss a variety of topics.

"I was happy to learn about this program organized by my former teammate Annie, her passion for the game, and women's basketball is something I will always admire," she shared. "I had a great time meeting and talking with our island coaches and their mentors to share my experience and teach in any way I can."

The session which featured a question and answer forum and the current Phoenix Mercury head coach in the WNBA, discussed a variety of topics including establishing a culture for a team, challenges as a female coach, and preparing for a tournament.

Jessica Olson, a national team player and assistant coach in Arkansas from the Marshall Islands reflected on the conversation as insightful to her burgeoning career as a coach.

"I hope to take the words of wisdom provided by both Coach Sandy, the mentors, and fellow participants and apply it to my coaching. One of the things that stuck with me from the zoom call yesterday would be, It is what it is.", Olson said. "This is so relatable to both coaching and everyday life. Things are sometimes out of control, but it’s best to think of that simple phrase and keep on living life and do what you’re passionate about."

Meanwhile, Arleen Mad from Guam appreciated the passion of Brondello and how it inspired her to become a better coach.

"For someone like me who enjoys the game, the preparation and the thought process behind the decisions, yesterday’s session with Coach Brondello offered more knowledge, validation, and direction as I continue to grow and aspire to become a better coach," she said.

"Thank you for the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the game — it was an insightful experience," she added.

The online meeting which went over the scheduled one-hour session was created to provide continuous development support for Female Coaches in the Pacific.

"We agreed that the best course of action is to check in with each other every couple of months to strengthen the network of female coaches in the region. It's a way for us to provide long term support for the coaches in case they need help while also providing the platform for them to share their knowledge," La Fleur stated.

 Check out excerpts in the online discussion of the TCC follow-up session.

On the significance of creating the right culture for a team

For me, culture is number one. To get the most success out of a team or organization, you need a good culture without it you will not get anywhere. I talk to my players about what we need to do, to be the best team we can be.

In our first time training camp for the Opals, on the very first day, the lights went out on the court, so what we did we sat down to talk about culture. , I am not a dictator coach and I want to discuss this with the players because if your players don't buy in it's not going to work.

We talked about what do we need to do to win, we talked about words; accountability, resilience, defense they gave us target words, and instead of saying this is what we are we have a word we have all contributed to creating that culture for the team. It's driven by all of us, you see the teams with the best success are one that has great culture driving them.

Improving on existing culture and mindset on taking over a new team

I think the most important thing is persistence. You have to be clear on what needs to change, we've all been in situations where it's an unhealthy culture, it comes down to building relationships and having difficult conversations individually with your team.

You have to keep moving forward and make sure to bring joy every single day. Some people suck the energy out of people, it's not fair on everybody else because it is a great game. It's important to be who you are, be positive but don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. When there are issues on a team, I always go one on one with them, some people are set in their ways but I think consistency is the key. You have to hold everybody accountable to develop that consistency.

Challenge during the Covid

It was a very challenging year for everybody, we talked about Covid, the social justice messaging and the platform that we used which was the whole season was about. But it was probably one of the best seasons we've had, we're all competitive but we all showed camaraderie to use our voices for good. We only had 10 players available for the WNBA bubble but instead of focusing on the negative we talked about what we can do as a group, we cannot control the uncontrollable so we focus on the things we can make a difference.

I'm not going to project negative energy out there, I'm a very positive person so we had to keep pushing and I hate losing so for me it was focusing on the goal and doing what can we do and learn from our mistakes.

Challenges faced as a Female Coach

I am fortunate to not have faced very serious challenges but it was never clear sailing. Sometimes there's going to be a program that is not going to be right for you, I was an assistant coach for the San Antonio Stars from 2005 to 2009 and took the head coaching job in 2010 when I was pregnant. When I look back it was the wrong decision, I was exhausted, I was traveling a lot but it was very humbling and I learned a lot from that experience.

Also, as a female coach you should always believe in yourself there will be times where you will be in a room full of men, you have to stand up for yourself and be confident that is how you get the respect that you deserve.

Preparation as Opals Head Coach for the competitions including the Olympics

From a national team perspective especially for the Olympics, I think it's important to have the mentality that it's going to happen with the situation being unpredictable. We had a great year preparing in 2018 for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup but we had to rebuild our culture because in 2019 it didn't happen like that. It was hard for us to get all of the players together due to availability.

So I put in a plan for a say 6-day training camp in January to build our culture, talk about x's and o's. We plan to have a camp in April. The most important thing is, you need quality games before competing, for the Opals we are hoping to have at least 10 quality games before we head into the Olympics. It is important to play those games to learn from your mistakes and develop chemistry.

The selection process is also challenging especially with talented players in Australia. Sometimes a player should have made it did not make it but it's not about them, it's about complementing the players you have. All of the players including 11th and 12th should have the right mentality for the team to succeed.

Balancing work and personal life at home while dealing with setbacks

My husband and I work together, he is in my Opals coaching staff this year. 2 years before he was the Russian national team coach, we make it work. I think it works that we both have the same passion and same occupation but also having open communication in what we need to do to achieve our goals.

It's how you respond to adversity that will show your true character, being positive, and how can get better. In 1988 I made the Olympic team for Seoul when I was only 19, I didn't play a single minute. Of course, I wanted to play and we lost in the Bronze Medal game so it motivated me. I didn't go and pity myself, it made me want to be better, it's not pointing the fingers at someone else it's about continuing to work hard to learn and be better.

FIBA