Ben Ettridge

Benjamin ("Ben") James Ettridge is an Australian basketball coach and player, who has coached both wheelchair basketball and the able-bodied version of the game.

Personal

Ettridge's father is Len Ettridge, who was a Paralympic competitor.[1]

Playing career

Ettridge competed in the State Basketball League between 1993 and 2004, playing in over 200 games.[2]

Coaching career

National wheelchair basketball teams

Ettridge has served in a variety of men and women's coaching positions for Australia's national wheelchair basketball program. He served as the head coach of the Australian men's Under 23 team, an assistant with the women's national senior team and as head coach of the men's senior team.[3] He became the head coach of the men's senior team in 2007, taking over for Murray Treseder who had taken a head coach position in the United Kingdom.[4] In 2007, he guided the team to gold at the Arafura Games. At the end of the tournament, his record as a coach was 9 wins and 1 loss.[4] In 2011, he worked with Basketball Australia and the Australian Paralympic Committee to secure alternative transportation for his team after they were left stranded because of Qantas's grounding of flights as part of a labour dispute. He and his team were trying to get to South Korea to compete in the Paralympic qualifying tournament.[5]

Paralympics

Ettridge coached the gold medal winning Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2008 Summer Paralympics.[6][7]

Other competitions

In 2009, he was the coach for the national side that competed at the Rollers World Challenge.[8] In 2010, he was the coach of the team that competed at the IWBF World Championships[9] that won a gold medal.[10] In October 2011, he was announced as the coach for the team that would compete at the Paralympic qualifying tournament for the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[11]

National Wheelchair Basketball League

In 2004, Ettridge became the head coach of Australia's National Wheelchair Basketball League's Perth Wheelcats. His father, Len Ettridge, served as the team's assistant coach. In his second year as head coach, he took the team to the NWBL's championship final where they lost to the West Sydney Razorbacks. In 2006, the Wheelcats team that he coached lost only one game all season before going on to win the league championship. In 2007, he coached a team that won every regular season game and won the league championships. He coached the Wheelcats to victory at the World Champions Cup, in a tournament where they did not lose a single game. In 2008, he was again the Wheelcats coach and the team lost only one game during the regular season before winning the NWBL's championship. In 2010, he left his coaching job with the Wheelcats and was replaced by Lee Nott.[1]

State Basketball League

Ettridge was named as the head coach of the Wanneroo Basketball Association's State Basketball League's team for the 2011 team in which he led the team to their first Championship win since 1993.[12] His coaching duties extended to player development for other teams in the association.[2]

Recognition

In 2009, the Australian Paralympic Committee named him as one of their finalists for their Coach of the Year award.[13] While coaching the Wheelcats, three times he was named the NWBL Coach of the Year. During a five-year period, he was five times named Wheelchair Sports WA Coach of the Year.[3] In November 2014, he was awarded the Australian College of Physical Education Coach of the Year at the New South Wales Institute of Sport Awards.[14]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Perth Wheelcats". Wheelchair Sports Western Australia. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Ben Ettridge - Men's SBL Head Coach". Wanneroo Basketball Association. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wheelchair Sports WA (21 January 2010). "Ben Ettridge Leaves the Cattery". East Perth Eagles. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Team Australia - May 2007". Australian Paralympic Committee. May 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  5. ↑ Jackson, Glenn (31 October 2011). "Flights chaos leaves sports stars stranded, home and away". Sydney, Australia: Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  6. ↑ "Basketball Chronology". Basketball Australia. 2010. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  7. ↑ McGarry, Andrew (4 September 2008). "Event guide: Wheelchair basketball". ABC. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  8. ↑ AAP. "Rollers roll over Japan". Sydney, Australia: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  9. ↑ "FOUR NSW TEAM REPRESENTATIVES NAMED IN ROLLERS TEAM TO PLAY ENGLAND". New South Wales Basketball. 29 June 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  10. ↑ "Rollers Int History". Basketball Australia. 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
  11. ↑ Gold, David (28 October 2011). "Australia name wheelchair basketball squads for London 2012 qualifying event". Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  12. ↑ "Season Preview – Wanneroo Wolves". State Basketball League. 24 February 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
  13. ↑ "Paralympic Sport Awards 2009". Australian Paralympic Committee. 2009. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
  14. ↑ "Batt and Fox dominate NSWIS awards". New South Wales Institute of Sport News. 21 November 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.

External links