Chargers coaching structure takes shape for 2025

A FORMER NBL product has entered the Surf Coast Chargers’ coaching rotation, with the organisation locking in its senior coaches for the 2025 season.

Former Under 18 girls coach and former Perth Wildcat Greg Smith will lead the Chargers’ Youth League Men’s side next year, and is excited for the challenge ahead as the team looks to make a climb up the standings in 2025.

“It’s definitely exciting to be announced to this position, I’ve been that Youth League age, and I know what the club’s direction is,” Smith said.

“There’s a ripping contingent of young senior players, I’m excited to bring that to life and introducing these boys to senior basketball.

“These Youth League players are the lifeblood of any senior program, and we’ll look to build them and prepare them for the senior basketball that comes next.

“I’ve had many players reach out regarding tryouts and the sort, and the one thing I always mention is that it’s a long-term commitment with a lot of hard work.

“The other coaches and I are excited to get stuck in for 2025 though. The long-term goal is to get an SBA product to the NBL or WNBL.”

Smith is one of two changes to the senior coaching line-up with Dave Scott departing his role as senior men’s coach, while Stef Grayson has re-signed as coach of the senior women and Craig Jarvis will again coach the Youth League Women.

He has spent decades in the region, also playing as a Geelong Supercat during its NBL years in the 1990s and running a personal coaching business in Geelong for aspiring junior players.

Surf Coast’s Youth League Men’s outfit fell down the standings in 2024, but Smith, who was also appointed the SBA’s director of coaching position earlier in the year, said he invited the challenge of putting together a successful side.

The Chargers won just five of its 22 games last year to finish 15th overall in the competition, following a 13-9 record in 2023.

The team hopes to replicate the same success the senior men’s side had in 2024, which saw it go all the way to Big V Division 2 Grand Final for the first time in the program’s history.

The Chargers will look to finalise their rosters before the end of November with a season start of early March 2025 in mind.