By BACT Media Unit – 26 September 2024

With Basketball ACT’s Under 18 Junior Representative trials drawing to their conclusion, we are excited to announce 2025 U18 Territory coaching appointments, for the Footlocker U18 National Championships, to be held 6-13 April 2025, at Moreton Bay, QLD.

After undergoing an extensive interview process, Basketball ACT would like to congratulate the following on their appointments for 2025:

  • Jenny Lonergan – ACT U18 Girls – Territory Head Coach;
  • Kelly Grandin – ACT U18 Girls – Territory Assistant Coach
  • Darren Stephenson – ACT U18 Boys – Territory Head Coach;
  • Andrew Rice – ACT U18 Boys – Territory Assistant Coach.

For Lonergan, who has been re-appointed to the Head Coach role, after a solid 2024 campaign and another NBL1 East season as Assistant Coach of the BA Centre of Excellence (COE) team, Lonergan, continues to look at ways to incorporate her own coaching development into how she prepares her teams. “The opportunity to be an assistant coach for the COE Women in the 2024 NBL1 East session was amazing and allowed me to continue to learn and develop around elite coaches and athletes. I look forward to utilising these learnings with the 2025 U18 Territory Women’s team.”, said Lonergan.

When discussing the motivators behind her appointment, development featured highly for Lonergan, saying, “Continuing to develop emerging female athletes in the ACT through the performance pathway is what I am really looking forward to this year.”

Continued development opportunities for young female athletes was echoed by Grandin, as a strong motivator in 2025, saying “I’m excited to be part of the U18W Team again and the opportunity to support the team to compete on the national stage. I personally love seeing the growth in players — I coached many of the girls in early juniors, so it’s great to see their development and equally identify new talent.”

Meanwhile the ACT U18 Boys Territory team, will see Darren Stephenson take charge in 2025.  “It’s a privilege to lead a top-notch group of coaches and work with a terrific group of athletes that will be working hard in the months ahead to prepare for National Champs in April 2025.  I’ve been lucky enough to coach many of these athletes throughout their junior rep journey, some since they were in the u12s.” said Stephenson.

When asked about what he was looking forward to the most about the opportunity, Stephenson said, “The chance to build an environment that will instil confidence and bring out the best in the athletes, and adopting a high-performance culture which will have equal parts ‘care and accountability’ for each other, is really exciting.  It’s shaping up to be an exciting group to work with, with good mix of top and bottom agers attending the trials. Overall, I anticipate the squad will possess a nice blend of height, speed and skill, and while National Champs will be tough, I’m optimistic we’ll perform well and be ready to execute under pressure.”

Joining Stephenson on the coaching bench as Assistant Coach in 2025 is Andrew Rice, who brings years of high-level experience to the role. When asked about the challenges ahead said, “From a coaching point of view, it’s an exciting challenge to help guide our young men out of the small basketball pond of the ACT, to compete consistently against the much bigger basketball ponds interstate.”

Well done and congratulations to all…