Coaches
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
Behind every great Club, is a team of amazing coaches who dedicate their time and passion to training the next generation of Giants Basketballers
Coach and Club President
Keith Buxton
No one has more Giants spirit than Keith! He has coached over230 Giants teams since 1992 from Juniors through to Seniors. That includes leading 67 teams into Finals and winning 37 of them.
Keith often coaches multiple teams (up to 8 per season!) and hopes to inspire more coaches to come up through the ranks.
Keith is always there if any coaches need his advice. He takes great pride in watching all our coaches in action and seeing the improvement of the teams during the season.
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Coach Keiths advice to players - Enjoy playing the game for as long as you can, because you will miss it when you can't. Its not about winning at all costs, its how you play the game.
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This is solid advice from someone who played for 50 years.
Director of Coaching - Girls
Nin Khoshbakht
Introducing Nin, one of our coaches who quite honestly has done it all. Nin has been coaching Giants teams for 3 years and is also a Rep coach AND coaches a school basketball team.
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Nin has been playing basketball 'since she could walk" and has played in local, state and national competitions - including playing alongside her twin sister against Lauren Jackson in the state champions!
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Nin dedicates her coaching time to teaching players how to lead, empowering them and gives them purpose on the court. With a focus on developing players and their strengths - each player brings something unique to the game, we need to embrace that.
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Nin is passionate about women in sports and strives to make an environment where young people can come along, try basketball and enjoy it. She wants to help ignite that love and passion for basketball, especially in young female athletes for them to feel comfortable within a safe and supportive environment.
Coach Nin's advice - You don't have to be the best, you just have to do your best!
Director of Coaching - Boys
Josh Ebzery
A big welcome to Coach Josh who is our newly appointed Director of Coaching -Boys. Josh has been coaching for 2 years and in that short period of time has excelled.
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Josh's motivation for coaching comes from a love of the game that he used to play and now wants to give back to the kids he coaches by developing their skills.
The highlight of Josh's coaching journey so far has been assistant coaching his first rep team for the under 12 Sparks team. Josh embraces the opportunity to further develop his coaching skills and is keen to use some of this learning with our Giants Teams.
Fun fact about Josh, his favourite NBA team is the LA Lakers, has seen them play live and....got to meet Kobe Bryant!
Coach Josh's advice - Play hard, Play fair, play with your mates and enjoy the game of basketball!
Vice-President and Coach - Boys - Under 16
Dean Burke (Wombat)
Wombat has been coaching with Giants for 1 year but has played across Australia, as well as coached, including at a National level.
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Wombat's motivation for coaching is to see players get better and grow, and a highlight has been to see his own boys get involved in the sport.
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Some words of wisdom from Coach Wombat: Play hard, train hard and always have fun, but most of all, be good to your mother.
Coach - Girls - Under 16
Fiona Burfield
Fiona has been coaching at Giants for several seasons, while first at the request of her daughter - Fiona's competitive nature has shone through and she enjoys being able to pass on some of her life experiences, to help support her players to become successful young women, whatever it is they choose to do.
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Fiona draws her inspiration from the players, she wants to see them be successful, which doesn’t always mean winning. Winning is great, but the highlight is when they play as a team- win or lose as long as they are unified.
Coach Fiona's advice for players: Basketball is a competitive sport, sometimes you win and sometimes it’s just not your day.
Game time each week is only a small part of playing if you want to be good - put the hard yards into your training and perfecting your skills.
Coach - Boys - Various Age Groups
Cody Smith-West
Coach Cody has been playing basketball since childhood and is in his third year coaching. One of our most versatile coaches having coached under 8s, under 14s and under 18s.
Motivated by his passion for the game and giving back to the club that supported him, Cody also enjoys watching the boys grow into young men, and teaching them skills not just for basketball, but for life.
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Coach Cody's advice to players: Respect the game above all else. Once you can respect the game putting time and hard work into it becomes natural.
Juniors Coaches
Role Models. Fun. Leadership
Complementing our Coaches are a team of Junior Coaches. These Junior Coaches support our up and coming players - teaching them basketball 101, mentoring them through team work and having a good dose of fun along the way.
Jayden's advice for future Junior Coaches: Coaching is challenging, but extremely rewarding. I have grown as a person and as a player and would encourage anyone who has an interest to give it a go. I am looking forward to coaching my next season.
Junior Coach
Jayden
JC Jayden has playing basketball for 3 years and started in U12.
Jayden has just finished coaching his first season and under his guidance - his U10B4 team made it through to the grand final! How many first time coaches lead a team to the grand final.
Jayden signed up to be a Junior Coach as he enjoys helping kids improve and develop their skills. In addition, he wanted to develop his own leadership skills. He says the best part of coaching is watching the kids develop friendships and improve individually and as a team.
Jayden is a Dallas Mavericks fan and draws his inspiration for playing from Kobe Bryant, while his NBA coaching inspiration is Pat Riley, who was prominent in the 1980’s. Jayden strives to continuing growing his skills as a player and a coach by learning from his own coaches.
Coming soon
Junior Coach
Jaheim
Coming soon
Expression of interests NOW OPEN for coaches
New and Returning Coaches - use this link
Giants Coaches Leaderboard
We are club rich in history and here is a snippet of the grand finals that Giants Coaches have led our teams into since the Clubs founding.
We are proud and thankful to our volunteer coaches who sign up, turn up and give it their all.
Full leaderboard can be found here
