Author: Taylor Hawks

Keith Price

Hawke’s Bay chairman Keith Price elected to NZBL board

Hawks franchise board chairman Keith Price has been elected to the board of the New Zealand Basketball League.

“It’s great for basketball in Hawke’s Bay and for the Hawks,” said Price who is holidaying with wife Amy in Spain. “I see myself there to promote basket ball in New Zealand.”

A player, coach and administrator in several codes, the fourth-term Napier City councillor feels that sport is at the heart of a thriving and successful community.

Price has a degree in coaching from Massey University and realises the importance of basketball at regional, national and international levels.

He was instrumental in lifting Hawke’s Bay Basketball Foundation out of its financial doldrums when approached to be board chairman.

“I see the importance of cohesive and diverse board of governance and can see the benefits of a team approach to management,” says Price.

“The NBL offers individuals an opportunity to play basketball at a national level and the development of this league has the ability to reach all corners of New Zealand.”

He harbours visions of basketball becoming incrementally much stronger in the country to command marquee status on the international platform.

The former police detective, who was part of the team that led to arrest of Jules Mikus for the murder of 5-year-old Napier girl Teresa Cormack in 1997, had decided to put his name forward for this role on the NZBL board position to be a voice for the franchises across the country.

 

By: Anendra Singh

 – NZ Herald
Zico Coronel

Hawks coach bolsters CV in Spain

Zico Coronel has a burning desire to become better as a professional basketball coach so he has no qualms about straying well outside his comfort zone.

Coronel, who is on the cusp of making his National Basketball League (NBL) debut as head coach of the Taylor Corporation Hawks team, is in Spain.

The 34-year-old career assistant coach, who has deputised with remarkable success for 13 years in the NBL, has been going back and forth between Barcelona and Valencia by high-velocity trains, to broaden his horizon in a bid to watch the elite professional teams train and compete in their league.

But Coronel isn’t there in the hope of securing the signature of pedigree players for the Hawke’s Bay franchise team.

“It’s not to scout players but to improve as a coach,” explains the health and PE teacher at Rongotai College in Wellington.

Clocking the mileage has been a mind-boggling but immensely liberating exercise for someone who is prepared to leave no stone unturned in trying to make a memorable first impression as NBL head coach.

“To fly from Barcelona to Madrid would take about an hour 20 and it takes about four hours 45 on the train so by the time you factor in going to the airport and doing the security to get back into the inner city, it’s not particularly different to getting on a train.”

He could have gone to the glitz and glamour of the United States but he’s done that “multiple times”. The challenge isn’t that imposing considering the Americans speak English and their culture is “pretty similar to ours”.

In Spain, he says, the brand of basketball differs to here and there’s the obvious language and culture barriers but, he emphasises, it needn’t be if the code becomes the currency for growth.

No doubt, Coronel is looking at bringing a different perspective to his approach.

“Basketball is like a universal language in many ways. You can understand a lot even if you don’t know the Catalan, the Galacian or Castilian words with all the regional dialects here.”

Last month he observed the voting for the push for Catalan independence but, funnily enough, basketball made more sense to him.

“With different ideas and ways of doing things, when you think about basketball, it stimulates thoughts about different things.”

He impresses it doesn’t offer magical solutions but simply different avenues to tackle situations.

Spanish league players ply their trade well into June so their schedule clashes with the New Zealand one.

Coronel says the elite Spanish muster can be of NBA potential in the US so fiscally it becomes another ball game if the NBL enters that arena for a scrimmage.

“They’re probably making more in a month then we’ll be able to pay them for a whole season.”

He left on December 15 and returns to New Plymouth on January 16 before making a beeline for a national coaches’ convention in Auckland on January 18-19.

From there he’ll immerse himself in the national age-group camp in Rotorua next month where the talent will be exposed to programmes that will help them with making the transition to higher echelons.

So does Coronel envisage serving an exotic Spanish flavour through the Hawks when the NBL tips off in April?

“Basketball is basketball,” he says, feeling any efforts to dress it up any other way will prove to be a futile exercise.

His newly appointed Hawks first lieutenant, Morgan Maskell, of Auckland, has been conducting affairs in Napier, including orchestrating a pre-Christmas taster for the players here, and the feedback pleases him.

In November he also reappointed Kaine Hokianga, of Hastings, who shared two seasons with Coronel in the Manawatu Jets’ stable in 2008-09.

Coronel is indebted to FC Barcelona Bàsquet youth team director Pere Capdevila Bernaus, who has represented his country in five games, and Valencia Basket scouting co-ordinator Manolo Gramage for making sacrifices to make his experience a productive and memorable one.

He will have watched games and trainings involving Gran Canaria, Unicaja, Oviedo, Estudiantes, Obradoiro, Panathinaikos (Athens), Badalona, Fuenlabrada, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Fenerbache (Turkey, EuroLeague champions) and Zaragoza as well.

Spain has a stratified structure whereby there’s a clear pathway from the junior age groups to the professional tier with most clubs housing a second team.

The Liga Endesa (ACB) is the top professional division with 18 teams. A promotion-relegation system sees the bottom dropping to the LEB Oro (gold, 16 teams) and via the same criteria from here to the LEB Plata (silver, 16 teams).

The purity of basketball there, launched on a mission statement of entertainment, he believes make it a more enjoyable spectacle for casual spectators than other leagues.

Coronel’s ancestry goes back to the historic city of Segovia, northwest of Madrid. He has made a pilgrimage of sorts to the autonomous region of Castile and León, Spain, famous for its magnificent Roman aqueduct and for its cathedral, one of the last Gothic temples to be built in Europe.

“Unfortunately it’s on Christmas break but I’ve walked the streets to the monastery and the burial grounds of a unique world heritage city,” he says of a palace there that has lured Disney for a film location.

 

By: Anendra Singh

-NZHerald

Kaine Hokianga

Coronel appoints Hawks assistant coaches

He had a stellar career as assistant coach in the National Basketball League for 13 years but Zico Coronel has now appointed two assistants with some of his attributes for his maiden season as head coach next year.

Morgan Maskell, of Auckland, and Kaine Hokianga, of Hastings, have joined the coaching stable of the Taylor Corporation-sponsored Hawke’s Bay franchise team to prepare for the NBL tip-off in April.

So was Coronel in the hunt for deputies of his mould?

“I was looking for people with good character, people I had worked with before who I knew were of good character so Morgan and Kaine I’ve had dealings with before,” says the 34-year-old who is the health and PE teacher at Rongotai College in Wellington.

“Morgan will be the lead assistant but Kaine will have a significant input. It’s a team sport and that goes for the coaching staff because everyone needs to play their part, me included.”

Maskell assisted Coronel with the national under-16 boys’ campaign last year and this year. Under the pair’s tutelage, the team made it to the semifinals of the Australian Junior Championship equalling New Zealand’s best result at the tournament.

Maskell, who has settled in the Bay, also has assumed the mantle of basketball co-ordinator at Basketball Hawke’s Bay, the amateur body in the province.

The 25-year-old’s resume includes working at Harbour Hockey as competitions and social media co-ordinator, as well as stints at the University of Auckland and as an IT project management consultant in Sydney.

He mentored the 2016 Harbour under-17 boys to a national title and was at the helm as coach of the NZ U14 boys (Korus) when they claimed the Australian Country Cup in 2015.

Maskell has coached in the NZ Breakers’ academy for the past two years.

“I’m thrilled to learn from Zico and with the prospect of working with an outstanding group of people and players,” he says. “I know that we will build an inclusive culture that will see everybody involved with the Hawks grow and develop. Helping to build something new is exciting.”

Hokianga is a former NBL player who represented the Otago Nuggets, Taranaki Mountainairs and the Manawatu Jets in the 15-year stint.

From 2009-11 he captained the Jets, leading them to the 2011 playoffs after a seven-year absence.

Hokianga settled in the Bay two years ago, returning to his wife’s home province where the couple are teachers — he at Havelock North High School and Kim at Hastings Girls’ High School.

Last season’s caretaker Hawks coach, Benny Hill, appointed the 36-year-old and Clifton Bush II as his assistants to see the team through the NBL season after then coach Kirstin Daly-Taylor resigned suddenly two years into a five-year term.

“I’m excited to contribute to getting the Hawks back to being regulars in the playoffs and consistent title contenders. I also want to build on my coaching practice by working alongside Zico and Morgan,” says Hokianga who shared two seasons with Coronel in the Jets’ stable in 2008-09.

Coronel says they personify hard-work ethics in a time-consuming job where due diligence and attention to detail are crucial.

“It requires them to make a lot of sacrifices and put in a lot of time so those were probably the No 1 criteria.”

He says Maskell is technologically savvy so he’ll handle video analysis and player scouting.

Hokianga, he stresses, is a former elite player/leader who has carved a niche in the noble profession of teaching, which the coach relates to.

“His day-to-day work is explaining concepts and building culture-type things.”

Coronel says the assistants had already got involved in a camp for development players a couple of weekends ago and they all will earn the mana (respect) of players in different ways.

“All indications are the group will work well and cohesively.”

Coronel says his own portfolio as an NBL backbencher helped, especially with Maskell, because he has built a rapport with him perhaps through their liaison with former Tall Black and NBl coach Kenny Stone.

“I was certainly not surprised but most impressed with Morgan’s dedication and his willingness to push himself and make sacrifices to ensure the teams were adequately prepared,” he says, revealing it was a trait he bought into as well.

“I think Morgan was one of the absolutely best candidates we could have found and we’re pretty fortunate that he was prepared to relocate his whole life after resigning from his job at Harbour Hockey.”

Coronel says although Maskell hasn’t lived here before it obviously wasn’t too big a sacrifice to make because of what the province offers but the coach was extremely grateful of the sacrifice he made to support him and the franchise.

Franchise board chairman Keith Price says: “We’re 100 per cent behind their appointments. The management team is coming together well and we’re keen to identify more quality people to contribute to the growth of our franchise.”

 

By: Anendra Singh

-NZHerald

Taylor Hawks Coach Steps Down

The Taylor Hawks would like to advise that Kirstin Daly-Taylor has stepped down as Head Coach

Kirstin was contracted with the Hawks in 2016 on a multi-year deal. She was successful in implementing a successful game plan on the 9 April when the Taylor Hawks beat the Mike Pero Nelson Giants 81-63, but it has been the only win for the team this season.  

With a view to look for better success, Daly-Taylor has resigned and feels that the team needs a new leader.

Daly-Taylor said she felt the team could improve under refreshed leadership and believed it was right to step down to make the position available for a new Head Coach. 

The Taylor Hawks have accepted the resignation and the decision is an amicable one.

The Taylor Hawks in the interim have appointed Board Member Ben Hill in a caretaker role for the game on Friday in Te Awamutu and Saturday in Nelson.

The four-time NBL title-winning forward played for the Waikato Pistons and was a three-point clutch specialist.

Hawks end 24 game losing streak

The Taylor Hawks have finally ended their 24-game losing streak with an 81-63 win over the Mike Pero Nelson Giants.

Hawks captain Everard Bartlett led the way with 19 points, forward Joshua Fox added 15 and seven rebounds, and Greg Fiorentinos had 15 off the bench.

June 21, 2015 was the last time the Hawks had a win, but today hopefully a winning streak will begin for them who showed a great deal of hustle to finally get on the board. One person who will be relieved to remove the monkey off her back is Hawks coach Kirsten Daly who will be impressed with her sides defensive effort which restricted the Giants to 63 points on 37% shooting.

The Hawks also welcomed American centre Amir Williams who although didn’t produce much of a stat line brought presence on the inside.

It was another disappointing effort from the Giants who today only got good production from Dion Prewster who had 25 points. Lack of depth in the forwards came to the fore today when their centre Curtis Washington battled with foul trouble, playing only 17 minutes.

Finn Delany and Kyle Adnan were the only other Giant players to reach over double-digit points, but Delany struggled from the field shooting 4/16 while Adnan struggled to find a rhythm with taller opponent Jarrod Kenny making it difficult.

Off the bat, you could feel this was a different Hawks team when they opened the game with four straight points from Fox including an emphatic dunk, followed by a three from Tony Tolovae and then a bucket from Johnson which gave the home side a 9-2 lead to begin the game and a 20-13 lead after the first quarter. The Hawks were not going to let the game slip from them winning each of the next three quarters.

The Hawks will try to bring this momentum in when they play at home game again against the SIT Zerofees Sharks who will be coming off a game the night before against the Wellington Saints.

Nelson now slump to 0-5 and have a lot to ponder as the schedule won’t be easier when they travel on the road next week to play against the James Blond Supercity Rangers and Taranaki Mountainairs on Saturday night then Sunday afternoon.

A special mention to Referee Dallas Pickering who officiated his 400th NBL game today. Pickering began his career in 1994 and currently holds the most ever finals officiated (15) and is one of only two referees to have officiated over 400 games joining Stan Battock who 1982-2004 officiated 460 games.

 

Sunday, April 9

At Pettigrew Green Arena, Taradale

Taylor Hawks 81 (Everard Bartlett 19, Joshua Fox 15, Greg Fiorentinos 15)

Mike Pero Nelson Giants 63 (Dion Prewster 25, Kyle Adnan 11, Finn Delany 10)

Live Stats

Rangers overcome deficit to beat the Airs

The James Blond Supercity Rangers have overcome a 22-point deficit to defeat the Taranaki Mountainairs 65-62.

It was evident that both teams were coming off games on Friday night as each team shot in the low thirties.

Mitch McCarron had a double-double of 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Lindsay Tait tallied 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Rangers who will pleased to be 3-1 to start the season without key personnel to join their roster.

Taranaki should feel gutted not to have got the win this afternoon and showed a lot of fight after they lost their American centre, Daniel Gomis with a suspected fractured hand only playing seven minutes. The Rangers took advantage in the second quarter when Taranaki’s leading scorer Tylor Ongwae had to be benched after committing his third foul to cut the 22-point lead to only seven at halftime.

The second half was not pretty as both teams were sloppy offensively and in the end the difference was possibly three throw shooting. The Rangers making key ones down the stretch, ending the game shooting 14/19, whilst the Airs were poor at 10/20.

Ongwae scored a team high 14 points and Houston O’Riley had 12 for Taranaki who drop to 3-2 and also lose the all-important tiebreaker against the Rangers.

Taranaki will hopefully have a positive prognosis on the injury status of Daniel Gomis, but it will be a short turnaround for the franchise as they will host the 4-0 Wellington Saints on Thursday night.

Meanwhile the Rangers should have Guam small forward Earnest Ross to make his first appearance against the SIT Zerofees Sharks next Saturday in Invercargill.

 

Sunday, April 2

At Trusts Arena, Waitakere

James Blond Supercity Rangers 65 (Mitch McCarron 24, Lindsay Tait 15)

Taranaki Mountainairs 62 (Tylor Ongwae 14, Houston O’Riley 12, Alonzo Burton 10)

Live Stats

Saints win fourth straight

The Wellington Saints have overcome a sluggish start to win their fourth of the season with a 102-91 win over the Taylor Hawks.

Corey Webster scored a game high 33 for the Saints and took control in third period and early part of the fourth quarter which saw the visitors take a two-point half time lead up to 19.

Tai Wesley and Shea Ili both added 19 and Jordan Ngatai added 14 for the Saints who have now won their last six.

Hawks would try to make a mini fourth quarter run with back to back three’s from Everard Bartlett, but the deficit would be too large for the home side who now slump to their 24th straight loss and fourth for the season.

Wellington’s strategy was to give point guard Jarrod Kenny free looks on the outside and he took advantage scoring 22 points and dishing out 15 assists. Bartlett and Tony Tolovae added 14 for the home side and off the bench Joshua Fox played extended minutes to score 16 for the Hawks who played without American, Lamar Roberson who struggled in his first three games with the Hawks.

The Hawks made a solid start winning the opening quarter 18-16, but from there on and could not contain Wellington’s offense which scored 86 points in the final three quarters and ending the game shooting 58% from the field and 47% from three.

Tomorrow, will feature what should be another good game between the James Blond Supercity Rangers (2-1) and the Taranaki Mountainairs (3-1) which will be streamed live via NZ Herald and on Maori T.V, tip off 3pm.

 

Saturday, April 1

At Pettigrew Green Arena, Taradale

Taylor Hawks 91 (Jarrod Kenny 22, Joshua Fox 16, Everard Bartlett 14, Tony Tolovae 14)

Wellington Saints 102 (Corey Webster 33, Shea Ili 19, Tai Wesley 19)

Live Stats

Hawks suffer heart breaking loss to Taranaki

The Taylor Hawks have suffered a heart breaking 76-75 loss to the Taranaki Moutainairs extending their losing streak to 23

The Hawks looked like they were going to get their first win since June 21, 2015 when Tony Tolovae hit a three in the corner to give his side a 72-71 lead with under a minute to go, but Taranaki point guard Houston O’Riley would be fouled by Tolovae and would convert one from two to tie the scores.

Tolovae would quickly go from hero to zero on the next possession as he tried to break his defender down one on one at the top of the key which then led to a turnover and a break away basket from Brad Anderson to put the visitors up two.

Unfortunately, on the ensuing possession the Hawks made a good play which gave forward Joshua Fox an easy lay in, but it would roll out, forcing them to foul Airs forward Tylor Ongwae who would make it a two-possession ball game with both made free throws.

A bank three-pointer by Everard Bartlett would close the game to within one but it would be not enough as the Airs move back up to .500 with their second win of the season.

It would be an ugly fourth quarter from the Hawks, managing only eight points to the Airs 15. Ongwae led Taranaki again with 21 points, centre Daniel Gomis added a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds, and former Hawk Alonzo Burton added 13.

Everard Bartlett scored a team high 21 points, but struggled from the field shooting 6/17. Forward, Greg Fiorentinos added 12 points and 13 rebounds, and both Foz and Darryl Jones each added 10 off the bench.

Jarrod Kenny joined the Hawks for the first time this season and gave his side much needed stability at the point guard position dishing out seven assists and grabbing seven rebounds.  Kenny ended up playing 37 minutes but struggled from the field with six points on 1/7 shooting.

The Hawks will have another chance to end their losing streak at home to the Wellington Saints next Saturday night. Taranaki will try to win their first home game of the season when they play the SIT Zerofees Sharks next Friday night.

Sunday, March 26

 

At Pettigrew Green Arena, Taradale 

Taylor Hawks 75 (Everard Bartlett 21, Greg Fiorentinos 12, Darryl Jones 10, Joshua Fox 10)

Taranaki Mountainairs 76 (Tylor Ongwae 21, Alonzo Burton 13, Daniel Gomis 13)

Live Stats Link

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