Gold Coast (Australia) - FIBA Oceania's Tournament Coaches course for National Federation nominated female coaches will launch on May 14.

The Tournament coaches course will include six-session interactive forums from various coaches including Lori Chizik, Zoe Carr, Mel Downer, Kristen Veal, Jackie Brown, and Katrina Hibbert. The program was spearheaded by FIBA Oceania Development Manager Annie La Fleur.

"This course is designed to help prepare coaches to undertake national coaching roles within the Federation," La Fleur said. "The course will be delivered online by female guest presenters who we will provide the necessary skills to prepare the participants and their teams to compete in tournaments."

The former Opals player believes this project will build a rapport amongst the Pacific coaches and a network of female mentors.

"We are keen on creating a coaches community for females in our region and this is also an opportunity to build relationships so we may be able to mentor one another once the course is complete," she explained.

La Fleur  mentioned the vision of the project to be in line with one of FIBA's strategic pillars in 2019-2023 focusing on "Women in Basketball"

"As a region, we have identified and will implement a program which is contributing to FIBA’s ´Women in Basketball´ strategy. We want to give more opportunities to our female coaches to grow and influence the game moving forward," she said.

The course will feature team-building subjects including "Building your Plan" by Chizik, "Talent Identification" by Carr, "Conducting Trials and Selection" by Mel Downer, "Leadership" by Kristen Veal, "Technical System and Philosophies" by Jackie Brown and "Scouting" by Katrina Hibbert.

La Fleur worked with Basketball Australia to identify guest presenters and shared that they chose the mentors that will help achieve the project's objectives.

"I know most of these coaches personally and believe their coaching styles and philosophies will benefit from their experience.," she said.

"The objective of this course is to provide the coaches skills for them to be prepared for tournaments and hopefully help bridge the gap between Australia and New Zealand," she added.

The Tournament Coaches Course is part of a series organized by FIBA in the Gold Coast.

FIBA