The Northern Suburbs Basketball Association is pleased to announce the appointment of London Olympian Natalie Stafford as head coach of the Norths Bears Waratah Championship Women’s team for season 2014.

The former University of Oregon and WNBL stand-out will take the helm of the Bears for next season, looking to build on the platform built by the Damian Cotter-led 2013 group that qualified for the club’s first play-off berth in five years.

Originally from central Queensland, Stafford was a consistent QLD state junior representative before commencing her collegiate career in the strong Pacific 10 conference on the US west coast. From there, the talented guard played WNBL with Sydney Uni and Dandenong before spending time in Great Britain. A stint in the English semi-professional women’s league caught the attention of Great Britain coach Tom Maher and led to inclusion in the team to contest the 2011 European Championships and the 2012 London Olympics.

On retiring from playing after the Olympics, Stafford has worked extensively in junior coaching and player development and was recently appointed as an assistant coach with the New South Wales Under 20 Women’s State team. Passionate about developing young female players, she is currently working with the St Michael’s Basketball Club as Director of Coaching and is also involved coaching a number of girls local competition teams at both the junior and senior level at Norths.

In announcing the appointment, NSBA Development Manager Peter Lonergan said the club was excited to have such a promising young coach take the helm of the senior women’s program at Norths.

“Natalie had a terrific playing career, culminating in the 2012 Olympics and since that time has displayed real passion and commitment to coaching and player development,” he said.

“We are excited to have her at the club and look forward to Nat building on the outstanding work and leadership of Damian Cotter and Jo Milling in 2013, where the team made such terrific strides.”

The preparation for the 2014 Waratah Championship season commences on Sunday, November 17 with open trials to be held 8am – 10am at the North Sydney Indoor Sports Centre. All interested players are welcome to attend these trials.