Ben checks out the competition

By Kath Gannaway
YARRA Valley basketball coach and administrator, Ben Turner, is on a three-week tour of America and Canada as coach of the Kilsyth Cobras Under 18 girls’ team.
Back in July, when he first learned of the assignment, Ben told the Mail that the trip would be a learning experience where he aimed to gather as much knowledge as possible from college and pro coaches and to identify ideas for participation increases in the Yarra Valley. Reporting from Portland, Oregon, where he arrived last week in 1-2 degree temperatures, he said he had been to see the Portland University men’s team training and meet their coach Michael Holden, a former NBA player.
Staying with the womens’ head coach, Jim Sollars, Ben said he has had the opportunity to watch tapes of the women’s game from the weekend and of the team the Cobras will be playing.
The team has also been to see the Oregon City High School girls’ team train. “This school is one of the best high school basketball programs in America,” he said.
Ben has been involved in basketball in the Yarra Valley for more than 10 years as a player, coach, referee and administrator, and is well-known to hundreds of budding basketballers as organiser of the Aussie Hoops Oz Ball program in Healesville and Yarra Junction. He is also completing a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sports Coaching and Administration and Deakin University with plans to complete honours next year.
From America he will fly to Hawaii spending 11 days visiting the universities and camps before flying home.