Barbara's honour was a well deserved recognition of her years of involvement in basketball in New Zealand, which has covered almost every facet of the game.  Barbara has been a player, coach, referee, administrator and competition promoter.  She has worked at the domestic, national and international level of our sport, and is a very worthy recipient of the Life Membership award.

In replying to a thank you note from FIBA Oceania Secretary General Steve Smith, Barbara said "Many  thanks for your note Steve. I recall when I was awarded a New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006, an award promoted by politicians and conferred by Her Majesty the Queen, I was quite overcome.  However, this recognition from my basketball colleagues is very, very special and I am truly delighted."

Below is Barbara's life member citation
Barbara Wheadon: Life Member Citation

Administration:
Past Association President North Harbour Basketball Association
A player, coach and referee over a 35 year involvement in North Harbour Basketball
Past Secretary, Treasurer, Tournament Coordinator and Chairperson North Shore Stadium Trust,
Convenor National Leagues Sub- Committee, Coordinator of the Miniball Development Sub-committee

Trustee of Sport North Harbour. 1990-2002; Trustee of Millennium Institute of Sport and Health

Previous:
President Basketball New Zealand 2002 -2008
Vice President Basketball New Zealand 2000-2001 BBNZ Board Member 1998-2000
FIBA Oceania Board Member 2002-2004
Sport North Harbour - Administrator of the Year 1992
North Harbour Association - Outstanding Service to Basketball 1996

Current :
FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Central Board Member: 2002
FIBA Oceania President 2006- 2010
President of the New Zealand Basketball Foundation 

Awards:
Member of the NZ Order of Merit 2006 for services to Basketball
North Harbour Sports Awards Administrator of the Year 1992
Pride of Te Awamutu Awards 2002 - High Achievement in the sport of Basketball
BBNZ Sir Lance Cross Award 2008 
 
Background History:
Barbara started playing basketball in her early teens by chance, as the school basketball coach lived nearby and provided transport to games and practice. Barbara’s dad worked shift work and needed the family car to get to work. By her late teens she was playing in the Waikato representative team.
 
After getting married Barbara and Graeme settled on the North Shore of Auckland where Barbara continued to play basketball, starting up the Coasters Club, based around the East Coast Bay Jaycees Service club that Graeme was a member of.
 
The desire to improve refereeing made Barbara insist that all her team attended refereeing courses so that they could improve their refereeing and expect the same of others. 

It was not long before Barbara was on the North Harbour Basketball Association committee and was greatly influenced by Judy Crooks and Jeff Olson for their commitment to the sport. By 1982 Barbara was President of NHBA and set about to accelerate the growth of the game on the North Shore by introducing Mini Ball to all the Primary and Intermediate schools, using NBL imports to provide the coaching. 

It was not long before the game outgrew the available facilities with the 2 courts at the YMCA along with the school gyms at Westlake, Rangitoto, Nothcote, Glenfield and Longbay all in use every available night. It was now time to lobby the North Shore City Council, which resulted in land being made available for what became the North Shore Events Centre. With 3 courts, the facility was opened in 1992 after many years of exploring various funding options.

To make the facility viable North Harbour Basketball Association took a lease for every available night, which at the time was way in excess of their requirements. About this time the local secondary headmasters were concerned at the damage done to their gyms by visiting fans. Barbara came up with idea of hosting the inter-secondary competition at a neutral venue. The North Shore Events Centre was selected as the neutral venue.  This proved to be a stellar move and was yet another example of her ability to turn a problem into an asset to all. 

Meanwhile all involved in the game from Mini Ball to senior comp were signed up as members of BBNZ making North Harbour Basketball Association one of the largest Associations. 

Refereeing had to keep pace with the growth so Ken Coulson was supported to implement a referee training program, with all the refs having uniforms and being paid to ref with the payment increasing with ability. Coaching courses were also developed to continue to grow the skills of all these players.

The key mantra of Barbara’s was to run basketball as a business with all profits going back into the game. This enabled North Harbour Basketball Association to employ staff to run the competitions and employ a CEO so the management shifted from part time volunteer to full time professional.

By now Barbara was on the Basketball New Zealand Board and pushed to change the philosophy from a state funded sporting organisation to a self-funded organisation that controlled its own destiny.  One of the more difficult tasks as a new National President was the appointment of the senior men's national coach.  To help with this decision Patrick Hunt from the Australian Institute of Sport was brought in to assist. The decision to appoint Tab Baldwin proved most successful, leading to the stellar result in beating Australia for the World Championship position.  In the 2002 World Championships, the New Zealand men achieved a 4th place.

By now Barbara was on the board of Oceania Zone, but how did this happen?
Al Ramsey, Secretary General of Oceania, was visiting New Zealand and Basketball New Zealand suggested he visited the North Shore Events Centre where he found Barbara who proudly showed him the recent issue of the local newsletter, exerts from the Oceania newsletter.  Al was very impressed.

This was an example of how Barbara views every resource as an opportunity and this has led to improved international opportunities for our top 4 teams e.g. Under19 World Men’s champs in NZ, taking on New Zealand National Olympic Committee to include the NZ Woman’s team in the Athens Olympics following their qualification; and the Junior Tall Blacks invitation to Albert Schwietzer tournament. 

Quite simply, Barbara’s philosophy is “Why leave thing the same as yesterday, why not push on based on yesterday’s best to lift the bar.”