AUS - Orlick joins Thunder

MELBOURNE (WNBL) - Logan Thunder has opted for top level experience in naming the coach of their first Australian Defence Force Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) team.

Former Brisbane Bullets NBL coach, Richard Orlick, has been handed the job to lead the BDS Thunder into the 2008 competition.

Orlick already has ties with the Logan Thunder organisation having coached their ABA men's team last year.

He is also heavily involved with basketball in the Logan City area as the head coach at the district's biggest school, John Paul College.

Only last week he took the open JPC girls team to the Australian All Schools Championship title.

Orlick said he was honoured to lead the new team and was already counting down the days to their first competition game in September next year.

"Everyone at Logan has done a great job to get this side up and I don’t think I could be happier leading a team that is truly representative of the community," Orlick said.

"Next year is going to be exciting, not only is Logan going to have a team to cheer on, it will also represent the first time South East Queensland has had a team in the WNBL since 1998.

Backing up Orlick as the assistant coach will be current Thunder ABA female coach David Mitchell.

The first job for Orlick and Mitchell will be to fill their roster, which they’ve said will be a mixture of local talent and existing WNBL players.

"If you look at the Gold Coast Blaze NBL consortium and the team they’ve picked for their first season, they locked in a combination of local players with a few experienced players they’ve bought," Orlick said.

"We’ll be looking for the same sort of squad, we’ve not only got lots of good players in the club, but also some of the best talent in Australia right here in South East Queensland.

"In the past some of them have unfortunately been forced overseas to pursue a career, but now they’ll have the chance to play for us in the best competition in Australia," he said.

Logan Thunder WNBL is a not for profit community based organisation.

FIBA