Former Brixton Topcats basketball player wins coaching award

London Coaches Program (LCP) mentor Lisa Williams, has been named Coach Developer of the Year at the UK Coaching Awards, recognising her significant impact on developing coaches.

Announced at a prestigious ceremony in Leeds on December 10, hosted by the UK’s leading organisation for coaches of sport and physical activity,
Williams was honoured with the award to mark her ingenuity and passion to see other coaches succeed in basketball.

As a valued member of the LCP, Williams has honed the coaching skills of more than 130 Londoners aged 16-30, adding to the thousands of coaches
she has mentored as one of Basketball England’s coach education tutors during her career – providing them all with the tools, techniques and strategies to enhance their basketball player development philosophy.

“I am emotional because you do so much and you do it because you love it, and you do it because it’s the right thing to do,” said Williams, who played for Brixton Topcats and is now a lecturer at Croydon College.

“And you don’t expect a pat on the back. It’s actually nice to have an award with my name on it. I’ve been doing it for years and no one’s ever said: ‘We see you, we see what you’re doing, and we appreciate you’.

“It’s good to be able to represent basketball in a positive way so that other sports can see that basketball is doing things the right way and getting the recognition that we truly deserve.

“We do good things, and we need to shout about it as much as we possibly can.”

PICTURE: BRITISH BASKETBALL