Coaching role for Arbroath hero Gareth Murray

Arbroath’s Commonwealth Games basketball hero Gareth Murray is wasting no time in putting in place plans for a future in coaching as he looks beyond his playing role with Scotland, Great Britain and the Glasgow Rocks.

The latter narrowly failed to reach the final of the BBL play-offs last weekend when they went down at home to London Lions after tying the first game at the Copper Box in London.

Murray’s next playing targets will be two World Cup qualifying games for GB against Estonia and Israel at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow, on June 29 and July 2.

But a new and exciting coaching role has now emerged for next season for the 33-year-old Arbroath High School former pupil with the announcement that he is to be the coaching director of a new Glasgow Rocks Basketball Academy, a joint project with Glasgow Kelvin College, one of whose campuses is close to the Emirates.

The project, announced jointly this week by the Rocks owner Duncan Smillie and Alan Sherry, principal of Kelvin College, will map the way ahead for budding basketball heroes and is believed to be a first for the sport.

It aims to keep young amateur players who want to pursue a basketball career while also studying for qualifications.

The Rocks will provide the basketball element which will run in parallel with their studies on a mainstream course undertaken at Kelvin College.

Between 20 and 25 young people will be recruited to the academy where they will have the chance of daily practices and a competitive game every week as well as their full programme of study.

Murray, who has confirmed that he will also again coach the Glasgow University senior men’s team in the Scottish Universities League next season, is delighted with the new moves.

He said: “I’m very happy to be appointed academy director and I believe it’s a good initiative to keep young people studying as well as continuing their development as basketball players.”