Darrell, aka Rangitihi, Pene dabbled in basketball at high school however his journey in the sport can be attributed to wife Sue playing for the North Shore and Wellington teams – Darrell enjoying the games and trainings, especially those conducted by coach Bill Eldred.
Over the last 40 years Darrell has worn many hats – coaching, refereeing, committee member, playing socially, coach education and court convening at weekly leagues and tournaments. His first teaching job was at Newlands College in Wellington where he coached his first team and in 1983 attended NZ Basketball’s New Coaches Course facilitated by American Bill Lowerson. Darrell has based his coaching philosophy on the lessons learnt from Lowerson. Darrell has fond memories of his time coaching at Newlands College, including stuffing nine players into his Toyota Corolla to get to Sharp Cup games. Ironically two of those players have recently been back in touch – one a local dentist in Rotorua.
On to Whanganui High School where Darrell took the girls teams to the National Championships finishing 4th and 5th falling to powerhouse Church College on both occasions. Church College Coach Api Hemi gave Darrell some very sound advice, “analyse the pools and try to avoid his team in the future!!” Another highlight in Whanganui was taking the Whanganui Girls to the second ever U16 Nationals, held at Newtown Stadium. The Whanganui team included future Olympian and WNBA player Megan Compain.
Since arriving in Rotorua in 1992 Darrell has coached at Rotorua Lakes High, John Paul College – taking the girls’ team to runners-up at Nationals – Rotorua Boys High and Rotorua Girls High. In addition, he has coached numerous Rotorua and Bay of Plenty age group teams as well as the Rotorua senior men’s and women’s teams. Also, not to be overlooked are the many coaches workshops that Darrell has facilitated.
After a stint as assistant coach to Mata Cameron, Darrell was appointed as head coach to the Junior Tall Ferns in 2007 – winning the Main Event Tournament in Las Vegas a highlight. Darrell was grateful to High Performance leaders Ollie Dudfield and Tab Baldwin for their work in setting up national coaching conferences that greatly enhanced not only his coaching but that of many others.
Wife Sue and his daughters have been instrumental in his basketball journey in coaching, administration, and governance. Darrell is proud to have given many athletes experiences to treasure through tours he has taken to Australia, China and America. Darrell has served on the Rotorua Basketball Board for many years and currently holds the office of President of the association.
40 years involvement seems to have crept up quickly but it has been a journey to remember for Darrell Pene.
