alt BRITISH BASKETBALL has appointed Canadian Ken Shields (pictured) as assistant coach to the senior women’s team for the forthcoming crucial games next month that will help determine whether they compete in the London Olympics.

 

Following their promotion to Division-A last summer, Britain must now maintain their status by finishing top two in a series of round robin games with Finland, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

They have three consecutive home games, starting in Sheffield on January 7, and head coach Mark Clark believes Shields is an important acquisition.

 

He said: “I am delighted that Ken has agreed to become part of the GB Programme. 

 

"His appointment makes us better, his expertise and experience will have a huge impact on our programme and our efforts to retain our A Division status.”

 

Shields said: "It is a great honor for me to have been asked to assist the British National Women's Team in their upcoming campaign. 

 

"I look forward to working with coach Clark, the staff, the athletes and those associated with British Basketball to do Great Britain proud."

 

Shields’ role with British Basketball is his fifth head or assistant national team position, in which he has also been to three Olympic Games and five World Basketball Championships.

 

His first international job came with the Canadian national team, where he assumed several roles, but the highlight of his six-year spell as head coach was guiding the senior national team to seventh place at the 1994 World Championships.

 

Having served as a head coach in the Japan Basketball League Shields then went on to work with the Victoria Titans team in Melbourne in 2001 before he returned to Japan and became an advisor coach to the Japanese junior women’s team and an assistant coach to the senior men’s national team.

 

In 1999 he was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.

 

He eventually returned to Australia, where he was an assistant coach for the senior men’s team for three years through to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

 

During the 2006 NBA play-offs, Shields worked as guest coaching consultant of the Milwaukee Bucks.

 

Shields joins British Basketball from the Georgian National men’s team, where he was assistant coach for two years and head coach for one.

 

Chris Spice, Performance Director for British Basketball, said:  "We are very pleased that Mark Clark has chosen a coach the calibre of Ken Shields to work with him for this all important European campaign in January.  

 

"Ken has a world class basketball coaching pedigree and he will bring a wealth of experience from his successful work in national programmes across the globe.  

 

"He will be a great addition to our off-court team."