Ben Sheat – driving home-court advantage T eacher, mentor, and coach Ben Sheat always aims high – both on and off the basketball court – steering scores of College
has allowed my coaching to improve,”
he points out. Oamaru-born and raised, Ben
sportsmen to lofty heights. In 2022, Ben was recognised as the New Zealand Basketball Coach of the Year for his outstanding achievements with the College A side and the Canterbury U17 team, along with his role with the Canterbury Rams. He coached the Canterbury U17 team – featuring four College players – to the national title in 2021. He has also been the Assistant Coach for the Canterbury Rams and the Head Coach of the Mainland Eagles Academy. Over the last five years, Ben has had a big impact on the College community, guiding the Senior A side to a national title for the first time, and developing the next generation of standout players. Under his strong tactical approach, the top team also secured the Thomson Trophy for the third year in a row in 2022 – the first school side to achieve the remarkable Canterbury Division One title three-peat since 2006. Alongside his coaching position, Ben has been Teacher-in-Charge – Health and a Physical Education teacher for three years while also mentoring and tutoring in Corfe House and School House during his time at College. “Coaching has allowed my teaching to improve and teaching
developed a love of basketball at Waitaki Boys’ High School, describing himself as a “bench player” and appreciating the skills of coach Brian de Geest. After leaving school, Ben
with the process and built up those structures and it started to pay off. We stayed with the structures of the programme and stayed consistent. “However, two of our more successful years were taken away by Covid-19.”
completed a two-year Diploma in Sports Management at the New Zealand Institute of Sport and “then decided teaching was my pathway, so I did another four years of study at UC”, gaining a Bachelor of Education. Throughout those six years, he coached basketball at Cashmere High School and transitioned into a dual teaching-coaching role before moving to College in 2018. “Many of New Zealand’s stronger coaches are teachers as well,” he says. Jumping into a new school environment in 2018, Ben clearly recalls his first College game. “Our first game was against Middleton Grange and we lost by 50 points. Now, I look back and think ‘we have come a long way’,” he says. “Through those first few years of rebuilding there were plenty of challenges and lots of disappointments but we stuck
Finally, in 2022, it all came together as the Senior A
basketball team sealed its place in school history, becoming the first College team to win the New Zealand Secondary Schools National AA Championships. “It was a pretty awesome message to the boys about being resilient and sticking with the plan and that all led to a cool finish, particularly for the Year 13 boys,” he says. While the team was packed with “really good players”, Ben had been working with the boys since their time in the Years 9–10 team. “That junior team was the first successful one, with the boys finishing 4th at the SI Juniors
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