Wrobel all fired up to keep ball rolling
TOWNSVILLE Fire assistant Mark Wrobel expects business as usual over the next fortnight as he steps into the head coaching role for championship- winning mentor Claudia Brassard.
Brassard will miss the Fire’s next two home games while she is an assistant with the Australian Gems contesting the FIBA Under- 18 Asian Championships in India from Sunday.
The Fire have made a rusty 1- 2 start to their WNBL title defence this season and host a Sydney Flames outfit chasing their first win on Saturday afternoon.
Wrobel felt a mix of nerves and excitement ahead of his first game as head coach, but having worked alongside Brassard at the Fire since 2014, he was confident it won’t be a disruption.
“Her and I have coached so much basketball together over the years that we’re very much on the same page and she’s comfortable enough to go and do that role,” Wrobel said.
“A lot of the senior girls have been with the program during that time so I’m fairly comfortable about being able to communicate with them.
“You’re always going to be a little bit nervous, particularly with the start that we’ve had, but we’ve just got to make sure we play our brand of basketball and we keep trying to get better.”
Wrobel was an assistant coach with the Australian Sapphires as they claimed bronze at the FIBA Under- 17 Women’s World Cup in Belarus earlier this year.
He said working with the Gems was an excellent opportunity for Brassard to further develop her coaching skills at the international level.
“I know how much of a thrill it is coaching international basketball,” Wrobel said.
“We’d love to have Claudia here, but she’s got that opportunity to do something special, so we just want to make sure that we’re doing the right thing by her and hopefully get two wins in that time.”
The Fire might be missing their head coach, but they’ll have their full squad available for the first time against the Flames, with Kiwi recruit Stella Beck set to return from a foot injury.
Wrobel said it would only benefit the team to have 12 fit players competing for spots.
“( Tuesday) afternoon, when we trained, was actually the first time since we’ve been together as a group that we had all 12 players on the court,” he said.
“All those players are fairly comfortable with where they’re at, but everyone also knows that they need to continue to perform to make sure they maintain their time on the court.”