Sam Woosnam wants to be the first female head coach of an NBL team.
And the three-time WNBL champion, who began her coaching journey when she was still playing, is well on the way.
There have been female assistant coaches in the NBL over the years – Michele Timms, Lori Chizik, Chanel Pompallier, Tracy York and most recently Fleur McIntyre who was part of Sydney Kings back-to-back championships in 2021-22 and 2022-23 – but never one at the helm.
But Woosnam, proudly and confidently, is aiming for the top job. And she’s temporarily relocated to Cairns for an opportunity with the Taipans.
“It’s the ultimate goal for me but I’m also not naive and know there’s a lot of things I need to do so that I can eventually achieve that goal,” she says.
“Right now, I’ve moved interstate and am away from my family to get my first foot in the door with an NBL program. It proves I’m dedicated and not just talking about it but doing things to try and be successful.”
On the invitation of head coach Adam Forde, Woosnam is heading up the NBL club’s Taipans Academy – Girls initiative and immersing herself in the elite men’s program.
“I think it’s important, not only because I have a daughter, for young girls to have mentors, a pathway and a program. I really love the TAG program and what Cairns are doing, they are the only elite team in far North Queensland and now they want to create opportunities and pathways for girls,” she explains.
“I’d never had a conversation with Adam Forde before and I really love the fact that they were looking for a head coach for TAG that had played in the WNBL and was coaching.
“He told me he’d seen an article where I’d spoken about being an assistant coach in the NBL so I’m really thankful he saw that and when the opportunity came up with TAG, he reached out. He also said I could spend some time and join his coaching staff while I’m here.”
A natural leader and perennial captain, Woosnam’s coaching career began when she was still on court as playing coach of West Adelaide for three seasons.
She’d then move to Victoria to complete her WNBL career with Dandenong, winning a championship in 2011-12, play in the then-SEABL for several seasons before taking on her first non-playing coaching role with Kilsyth Cobras.
Between 2014 and 2019, Woosnam led the Cobras to an incredible 102-32 win-loss record, several conference titles and in 2019 the inaugural NBL1 South championship.
Woosnam’s success and meteoric rise was acknowledged and rewarded with a plethora of Coach of the Year awards and other accolades.
She crossed to coaching men in 2021 when she joined Dandenong Rangers as assistant coach of the NBL1 team.
By the following season she took the reins. But it was a big change.
“Women’s coaching came easy to me because I knew the women’s game, I knew the players, scouting was easy and we managed to be quite successful in transferring how I played to the teams I was coaching – the way I taught, the systems we taught came easy because I’d done it,” Woosnam reveals.
“I really had to do a lot of working moving into the men’s space and I want to continue to coach men. Scouting isn’t as easy because I don’t know the players as well, it’s a totally different kind of game.
“I don’t think I relate different to players any differently because of gender, I think I still have that connection with my players and I think that’s why I’ve been successful because I understand you can’t treat everyone the same and I take time to build a rapport with my players and find a bit about who they are as people so as a coach I can get the most out of them as players.”
The leap of faith has resulted in growth and added confidence.
“I think I’ve become a better coach since I started coaching men because of a combination of all of those things,” Woosnam says.
“It’s also made me more confident, I think I’m quite a confident person anyway, but when I first started I was a little hesitant and outside my comfort zone and that’s been a great thing.”
