HAMISH BIDWELL
Five months on, it seems Basketball Hawke's Bay is starting to deliver on some of its lofty goals.
At the time, 0800 Easy LPG Hawks coach and Basketball Hawke's Bay head Shawn Dennis, reckoned his new organisation would provide a huge leap forward for the game in this region.
Gone would be the disparate Heretaunga, Hastings and Napier associations and in their place an entity that would strive for the type of excellence and accountability rarely seen in any sporting code in Hawke's Bay.
People who didn't like it, or couldn't adjust, would have to hit the road, said Dennis. There would be no place for bludgers on his watch.
Kim Howard has now assumed a lot of the day-to-day running of Basketball Hawke's Bay's Elite Player Development Programme and is delighted with the progress so far and aggressively targeting improvement in the future.
"For a start, we're very lucky to have someone like Shawn involved," said Howard.
"When I go to a training session and see nine and 10-year olds boys and girls, right through to 16 and 17-year old young men and it's a concept that you would've dreamt about a few years ago and thought 'wouldn't that be perfect.' And now it's actually happening.
"What we're trying to do is pick up kids in our under-13s and watch them roll right through to our under-19s and, for the boys, hopefully on to the Hawks. One of our big plans for Basketball Hawke's Bay is to have a competitive women's team in the national league by 2009.
"Not just a women's team, but a competitive one."
To do that and to build, Howard says Basketball Hawke's Bay has to prove to young athletes that they are the best run-organisation in town.
"Obviously we have rugby to compete with, for the boys, and netball and rugby with the girls," she said.
"There are some people who say kids should have to choose, but when you get kids who are at an elite level with basketball, they're probably at an elite level with rugby or netball too. Maybe some people on my board or that are involved with basketball might disagree, but I think we should expose children to as many things as we can.
"But what I would like to do is make our elite programme so good, that when the time comes when things do eventually clash and a choice did have to be made, that players would choose to come to us because we run things so well and so professionally."
And that starts with the kind of culture that leaves players, coaches and parents with no room for excuses.
"We'll have a handbook and everyone will know the procedures and know all the protocols," said Howard.
"There will be codes of conduct for the players and coaches and parents, not that the parents will have to sign it, and while people may not always like every decision, they'll have to respect.
"It won't make everyone happy, but anyone who works in the sports industry knows you can't do that."
BASKETBALL: Bay starting to really deliver goods
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