2017 Basketball Queensland Annual Awards Winners

Basketball Queensland Annual Awards 2017
Celebrating Achievements and Great Service in Basketball

On Saturday 26th May 2018 representatives from the Basketball Queensland community came together at its annual awards dinner. At this event, we celebrate the achievements of individual players, coaches, officials and associations during the previous year and recognise people who, throughout their lives, have given great service to Basketball.

Service to Basketball – Terry Lindeberg

Terry Lindeberg’s immense contribution to IBA spans an amazing 45 years in the roles of coach, player, junior competitions organizer, club delegate and on the management committee.
A shaker and mover, Terry contributions are now part of the fabric of IBA- extending the stadium to accommodate two more courts, refurbishment of the stadium after the 2011 floods and the name change from Ipswich Eagles to Ipswich Force to provide a new direction. More recently, Terry’s contribution has been in the sphere of coaching and development of juniors of all ages. While he has coached undefeated state champion U16 and U18 girls teams in the past year, he loves coaching beginners and contributing to the development of individual players.
Terry’s passion for basketball is evident in all he does but in particular his ability to give legendary play by play descriptions of games down to the last detail. Terry continues to make significant contributions as Easts club delegate on the junior competitions committee.
Even a major health issue could not keep him away from the stadium in 2017, taking pain medication just to be present at meetings and to coach.
It is with pleasure and pride that IBA nominated our longest-serving member, Terry Lindeberg for the service to basketball award.

Service to Basketball – Vicki Sams

Vicki Sams has given up hours of her week, every week for the past 2 decades in our association since it’s inception in 1996. However, Vicki wouldn’t see it as her “giving up” anything, she’d rather not be anywhere else but on the court with the kids helping them realise their full potential.

The Coombabah grandmother shows no signs of slowing up either, as she still coaches multiple club teams each season for the Coombabah Clippers. Something that she has done since 2006 when the North Gold Coast Seahawks junior domestic competition was formed. But even before that she was doing the same thing, with the first crop of players to come through the then Runaway Bay Basketball Association from 1996.

She has also been heavily involved in the Junior Seahawks program since the association started competing in BQJBC and State Championships in 2006. She has a knack for taking the rawest players and turning them into legitimate Premier League standard talents, with a huge focus on coaching the fundamentals.

Service to Basketball – Rebecca Schwerin

Rebecca has been a tireless volunteer for Caboolture Basketball for more than 6 years with the last 5 years being on the CBI board as representative coordinator. Her dedication to Basketball in Caboolture is truly amazing considering she also works a full-time job and is raising to children.

The youth of Caboolture have received the benefits of having her organising our rep programs, training camps, bonding outings as well as end-of-year functions.

Without having a super organised and dedicated person in this role then many of youth of Caboolture would not have experienced the joy of playing BQJBC and competing at State Championships. Her unique approach to fundraising has put many thousands of dollars toward sending kids who might not have otherwise been able to afford to play basketball.

Rebecca has also guided Caboolture Basketball through technology changes and educated some of our older members in the ‘way of the future’. Rebecca’s legacy with Caboolture Basketball will continue long after she decides to leave the organising to someone else. The Moreton Bay Region community are wealthier in experiences and spirit due to what this remarkable lady has given us.

Service to Basketball – Bill and Judy Soong

Bill and Judy Soong commenced their involvement with our game due to their children and during this time they looked for further involvement and chose to become a statistician. Over the years as they grew through their experience they assumed more unofficial senior roles in their area of game support which saw them participate at the highest levels of our games at a national and international ( Oceania) level.

They are dedicated to providing the best service they can on every occasion and always are considering ideas that will advance the sport or improve the delivery of the game stats to the teams.
They are a great team and we are fortunate to have people like Judy and Bill associated with our sport providing an important and valued service to us.

Male Player of the Year – Callum Dalton

Callum Dalton has made a significant contribution to basketball at a national and international level in 2017.

He is one of a number of Queensland athletes currently based at the Basketball Centre of Excellence in Canberra and represented

Queensland at the Under 18 Australian Junior Championships.
In addition, he has represented Australia in the Under 19 Emus in the World Cup qualification in Guam. On that occasion, the team won Gold.

He also attended the Basketball Without Borders NBA camp during this period.

Female Player of the Year – Alexandra Fowler

Alex Fowler has demonstrated throughout 2017 that she is one of the leading athletes in Queensland and Australia. Alex’ achievements in 2017 include:

Represented QLD North at the U18 Australian Junior Championships – 4th placed finish – the best of any female QLD team in 2017
Won a silver medal with Townsville at the 2017 U18 State Championships.
Represented Australia at the world 3 x 3 Championships in China.
Selected to attend two Australian Development Camps.
Represented Australia at the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup for U16 Women, helped the team win a gold medal in a thrilling 1 point win over Japan where she posted 7 points & 10 rebounds in 32 minutes on the court.
Won a gold medal at the 2017 Australian Schools Championships with St Margaret Mary’s College.
Part of the JCU Townsville Fire Academy

Alex has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to her own development in becoming one of the elite junior players in Australia. She is consistently amongst the leading rebounders in every competition in which she competes in and exemplifies the characteristics of Queensland athletes, selfless, hardworking and relentless. Alex has represented QLD at every level since she was a first-year U16 player and will continue this record of outstanding achievement in 2018 when she will again represent QLD at the U18 Australian Junior Championships.

Male Coach of the Year – Ian Haughton

During this nomination period, Ian led the U16 Queensland North boys state team to a gold medal at the U16 AJC tournament in Perth, Western Australia. This success capped a 2-year stint for Haughton as the Head Coach of this age group.

Female Coach of the Year – Rebecca Stephens

Stephens was the Head Coach of the Brisbane Spartans QBL women’s team which finished as 2017 QBL champions with an undefeated record, both regular season and playoffs.

Male Official of the Year – Jamie Schultz

Implicit in the criterion of consistency in performance is an ongoing participation and performance at a high level over a number of years. In Jamie Schultz’s case, this includes ongoing participation and performance at a high level as a statistician and an educator of statisticians.

Jamie is a FIBA Accredited Statistician who assisted with preparations for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and regularly assists within a variety of competitions, such as NBL, WNBL, Australian Junior Championships, National Wheelchair games and the QBL (in a variety of Clubs).

In addition to Jamie’s participation as a Statistician, he regularly uses these opportunities to train and guide local stats people, to help improve on game quality and basketball stats knowledge.

Female Official of the Year – Naree Wittwer

During 2017 Naree’s score table performances and education contributions included:

Men’s FIBA Asia Cup at Lebanon where she was appointed as Commissioner for 9 games including appointment for the 5 v 6 playoff match
Coordinating nominations for recruiting scoretable officials, conducting Level 3 courses and teaching scoretable officials at the U18 Australian Championships for potential Commonwealth Games scoretable officials
Assisting with selection processes for the 2018 Commonwealth Games Table Officials
A member of the NBL Technical Officials’ Advisory Panel
Participant in the 2017 FIBA Scoretable Officials Qualification Program programme and was successful in her re-appointment as one of six Australian FIBA Technical Commissioners
A scoretable official at NBL, QBL, local association games and as a scoretable educator throughout the state.

Administrator of the Year – Rob Tankey

Rob has managed the growth and expansion of South West Metro Pirates for the past five years. The achievements the association has made during this period have been significant:

Year on year, double-digit growth has seen South West Metro become one of the largest associations in the State. Rob has also been instrumental in securing BQJBC finals and the 2017 Under 14 Boys State Championships. Both events were very successful on the back of Rob’s organisation.

South West Metro has also lifted their skills in the management of competitions and use of the membership database. This has also seen more effective management reporting.

Rob has also been the driving force in securing management rights of the Hibiscus Sports Centre (the State Netball Centre) which has been a catalyst in growing the association and making it sustainable.

An excellent communicator and organiser, Rob is a very deserving recipient of this award.