Rockhampton Basketball is excited to announce the appointment of Shaun Gleeson to the newly created role of Development Officer.

Shaun has a highly regarded background in basketball having played at the highest level in Australia (NBL) with both the Gold Coast Blaze and the Sydney Kings. More recently Shaun has been involved with Gold Coast Basketball assisting in the delivery of their Aussie Hoops programs and working with their Representative Coaches.

Shaun has a passion for working with juniors. “I was introduced to the sport at age 5 and still remember falling in love with the game. That’s an experience I hope to share with juniors in Rockhampton”.

As part of RBI’s strategic planning process late last year we identified increasing our participation numbers as a number one priority. Shaun’s appointment will be a key in making this happen.

Growing membership is all about recruitment and retention. Introducing new people to the sport, and looking after once they’re involved so that they come back season after season, year after year. The Development Officer role will focus heavily on this.

As such Shaun will oversee all of RBI’s school based recruitment initiatives, as well as heading up our Aussie Hoops, U8 Mini-Ball, and school holiday basketball camps. Shaun will also be working closely with our member Clubs, specifically focusing on increasing both the quantity and quality of our volunteer coaches.

Although there have long been opportunities for our representative players to progress along the basketball pathways, we recognize that the same development opportunities have not always existed for our social players. Moving forward we’d like to rectify this problem, creating a new suite of programs that cater for participants of all abilities.

Shaun’s appointment will be over and above the positive work that is already being done by RBI Manager Matt Neason, ultimately providing the Association with another fantastic resource to put towards the growth of our sport. Further to this, both Matt and Shaun will be working closely with our Rockets and Cyclones players as we look to have them even more involved with various community engagement activities moving forward.

Although much of Shaun’s role will focus on junior development, the appointment will have a flow on effect for our seniors as well, freeing up resources that will allow us to work with the senior committee in exploring new initiatives including 3x3 and warehouse/social comps.

This is an exciting time for Rockhampton Basketball. We feel like the Association is moving in the right direction, with a growing sense of unity between members, clubs, and association. Our summer season saw positive growth across both junior and senior competitions, and early indications point towards further growth for our upcoming winter competitions.

Shaun will officially start his new role on Monday the 7^th of March.

Sincerely,

RBI Management Committee