Giving youth experience is key to our future basketball success says Vanessa Ellis

That is the opinion of Vanessa Ellis, one of the more prominent figures in women’s basketball over the last three decades.

Ellis was a player with the near-invincible Sheffield Hatters in the 1990s and was capped 59 times by England.

She then moved into coaching, succeeding her mother Betty Codona at the Hatters and also assisting Team GB in their Olympic campaign of 2012 before helping England win a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games two years ago.

Those achievements would have all been eclipsed, however, had Great Britain qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, a feat they came within one victory of achieving.

Ellis was assistant coach on that squad and the sense of frustration at losing all three games in the final qualifier back in February is still felt today.

“We didn’t play as well as we could, which left us even more disappointed knowing we didn’t perform how we were able to,” reflected Ellis, after her side lost to China, Spain and South Korea in Belgrade, knowing they needed only one win to reach the Games. That would have been unprecedented, given Great Britain has only contested the basketball tournament in the two Games they have hosted, in 1948 and 2012, and had never qualified outright.

The spine of that team in 2012 were still present in Belgrade three months ago and Ellis believes it is that unity that has helped the national team grow into a competitive force.

“It was a tremendous achievement, there were five players who had been at London 2012, still in the team,” says Ellis, who combines her coaching roles with the Hatters and at international level, with teaching jobs at Sheffield College and Dearne Valley College five days a week.

“You can’t replace that experience at that level, and they were the core of our success. Young players came into the team to help, but as a country, to continue that success we need to expose our younger players to this international competition because it’s a different level to our domestic league. All of our players are getting used to playing against players who are competing in EuroCup competitions and EuroBasket on a regular basis.

“We’ve got to get our young players, our future players, regular competition against this standard to help us continue with this success.

“It can’t just be a case of ‘look how wonderful we’ve done’. We’ve got to understand what it takes to get to that level.

“Basketball is thriving at the senior level, and that’s down to the core of the team and being around a high level for a number of years; they’re giving the younger players their knowledge and experience and are really supporting them.

“Hopefully we can build on this success.”

Having Ellis involved can only help that. She is from a family steeped in the game. In fact, the origins of women’s basketball in this country can be traced back to her mother Betty starting the Hatters in the early 1960s.

“Right from a very young age we were always around basketball,” says Ellis, who won 33 of 36 trophies on offer with her mother’s Hatters in the 1990s.

“It was great being part of a team, working together to be successful and developing yourself as a player and as a team.

“And playing for England gave me a lot of opportunities. I got a lot out of the sport, so it was a natural progression to go into coaching because I wanted to give other people the opportunities I’d had.”

Once sport returns, the Hatters can be found at All Saints Sports Centre in Sheffield from October.

“We have a crowd of regulars, and we can get 200 to 300 people watching us when we promote it well. We try to get young girls coming to watch us, hopefully to give them a little inspiration,” says Ellis.