Looking forward … Paul Jones will coach Werribee’s Big V Division One men’s team in 2011. 55209 Picture: SARAH MATRAY
By Luke D’Anello
PAUL Jones is looking forward to re-acquainting himself with some familiar faces in 2011.
Jones will take over from Mick Downie as coach of Werribee’s Big V Division One men’s team and is hell-bent on helping the Devils restore their reputation as a superpower of the competition.
Werribee’s men finished fifth last season – below expectations.
Jones, 41, has an impressive CV and has been involved with Werribee for more than two decades.
He was assistant-coach of the Australian under-17 team this year and was head coach of the Victorian under-20 team in 2006 and ’07.
In 1997, he was judged Basketball Victoria’s junior coach of the year. Jones has also been director of coaching at Werribee since 2008 and will continue in that role.
Jones tutored some of Werribee’s present players when they were taking their first steps into the sport “six or seven years ago”.
Last year, his focus was on junior players in the Werribee Basketball Association (WBA).
“I’m very excited and looking forward to aligning our junior and senior program, and providing a pathway for our kids coming through,” Jones said.
“There’s definitely some advantage in knowing the players coming through. But the reality is (the senior team is)still a separate team with a separate program.
“We’d like to see a sprinkling of the younger guys coming through but, more or less, we’d just like to be successful in the senior program.
“The junior program has been very successful. In the senior program, we’ve probably been a bit light on with our success.
“It’s just really about trying to establish us back into that main mix of an elite senior program, so we can really reach the heights of what our junior program is doing right now.”
Jones said he wasn’t close enough to the action last season to make a call on whether or not the senior team underachieved.
But he is adamant there are some rising stars in the ranks.
“I think if you ask the senior players, they would have thought they were capable of playing finals,” he said.
“But there are injuries and other commitments that can throw you away from that.
“I’m looking to bring a brand of basketball that produces opportunities for success and growth, and a style that our local community will take interest in supporting.
“We do have some elite juniors coming through and we have kids who are involved in national junior programs and Victorian state programs.”
Mick Downie, who stepped down from the top job, will remain involved at Werribee in a yet to be determined role, WBA president Mark Hall said.
Werribee is due to start pre-season training in late November.
