Visger keen to use role to help province

Basketball Otago development officer Natalie Visger has been named as the New Zealand girls under-16 coach. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Basketball Otago development officer Natalie Visger has been named as the New Zealand girls under-16 coach. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
Basketball Otago development officer Natalie Visger is already thinking how she can use her new role to benefit the province.

Visger is the latest coach from the region to be appointed to a national role.

The 35-year-old was named as the New Zealand girls under-16 coach last week and joins Junior Tall Ferns coach Brent Matehaere and Junior Tall Blacks assistant coach Gavin Briggs in the national set-up.

While the role will not involve a big-time commitment from Visger, she is hopeful it will prove fruitful in terms of networking and getting fresh ideas.

''I'll get to see what Basketball New Zealand does for their coaches and I'll meet a lot of people that I can hopefully get down here to work on some stuff with our coaches,'' she said.

''I'm excited to take whatever I learn here and bring it back to Otago.''

Visger's first commitment with the team is during a series of camps around the country next month. From there, Visger will select players for the trials in Auckland in mid-December.

The final squad will have a training camp in January, probably in Auckland, and come together again shortly before heading to Perth in July to contest the Australian national under-16 tournament.

It is a role Visger is, well, overqualified for really. The 35-year-old American moved to New Zealand two years ago and brought with her an impressive resume which includes a successful stint as head coach at Snow College Utah.

More recently, Visger, who played professionally in Germany, guided the Otago women's under-23 team into the final at the nationals.

Visger wants to get her charges excited about basketball but also to understand they are there to compete and win and not just to see how they will go.

In the past, a lot of basketballers came from a netball background but that is gradually changing with basketball becoming more popular, she said.

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