The recipient of the Carloyn Grey Award for 2021 was Head Coach of the Tauranga Boys U15 team that attended the National Tournament last year.
The recipient has been involved with the Basketball New Zealand High Performance Programme for a number of years, her contribution recognised with her being named as the NZ U17 Girl’s Coach for the next FIBA cycle. To help identify the talent in this age the recipient watched every girls game at the 2021 U15 National Championships as well as attending a series of U14 National Camps.
Most recently she was appointed Head Coach of the Whai Stingrays, one of five teams that will compete in the newly launched Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa competition.
Her citation reads:
“Her passion areas are coaching and equity in both the Maori space and wahine space, and how we can bring the game to the community. She has been instrumental in supporting Wahine coaches in basketball. She currently co-ordinates the Te Whariki Hou – Te Mana o te Wahine project. She has created the Pou Uara framework and strategy which the Tall Ferns implemented at the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup in Jordan last October”.
The Carolyn Grey Female Coach of the Year for 2021 is awarded to the newly appointed Head Coach of the Whai Stingrays, Mel Bennett.
