As a player Deslee Wrathall made 13 appearances for the Tall Ferns, including seven games at the 1983 Commonwealth Championships where New Zealand, beaten 51-50 by England in the semi-finals, claimed bronze.
Deslee turned to coaching after her playing career and has served the game in this capacity for almost 40 years. At the domestic level Deslee won a trio of Premier Women’s titles and 2nd Division titles. In addition, she has coached teams to over 14 BBNZ National Championships, plus Potukohu Maori National Championships and has coached Porirua Basketball teams continuously from 1985 to the current day.
In 2003 she was appointed as the NZ Breakers Strength and Conditioning C
oach and 2nd Assistant Coach in the clubs inaugural season in the Australian NBL.
In 2009 Deslee was the Junior Tall Blacks Campaign Manager at the FIBA U19 World Championships in Auckland. In 2010 she became the first female Head Coach of the Junior Tall Blacks leading the team at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Germany and on to the 2012 FIBA U19 Oceania Championships where the team claimed a silver medal. Notably at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament she became the first female Head Coach at this tournament in the 50 years it had run. That JTB’s team contained future Tall Blacks Reuben Te Rangi, Tom Vodanovich and Derone Raukawa, just three of the many international players Deslee has coached over the years
In 2011 she led the NZ U16 Women to their first ever semi-finals appearance at the Australian State Championships.
From 2013-2017 Deslee was the NZ Maori Women’s Head Coach.
As an educator Deslee has presented for FIBA Oceania and FIBA internationally, been a coach developer for Basketball NZ and continues to work at the grassroots level for Porirua Basketball and Poitukohu Maori Aotearoa developing and mentoring the next generation of coaches, and athletes.
Deslee is currently working with BBNZ on the Girls got Game Advisory Board, as an independent facilitator in Basketball for High Performance Sport NZ.
In 2023 Deslee’s presentation for FIBA and the World Association of Basketball Coaches was selected as one of the top 10 presentations from Wahine coaches in the world.
Numerous accolades have been bestowed on Deslee, amongst the many are:
- 2003 Named New Zealand Women’s Coach of the Year
- 2014 Service to Sport Award, sports administration and coach development, Porirua Sports Awards Event
- 2014 Named Wahine Coach of the Year by College Sport Wellington
- 2014 First female coach in NZ to be awarded an International Olympic IOC and FIBA Coaching Scholarship – (1 of 7 only in the World that year)
- 2023: Service to Sport Award at Porirua City Council Sports Awards Event
Deslee was an elite athlete in three sports. Not only a Tall Fern she won a World Championships with both the NZ Women’s Softball Team and the NZ Touch Team.
A New Zealand Softball Hall of Famer Deslee Wrathall is the latest inductee into the Basketball New Zealand Hall of Fame.
