The Just Better Care Wollongong Roller Hawks may have an ageing roster but they’ll still have representation at this weekend’s Under 23 Spinners camp on the Sunshine Coast as the team prepares for the Asia Oceania Qualifiers in November. 

Joining new head coach Brett Stibners will be Roller Hawks team manager James Williams, who will take on the role of team manager for the underage national team. 

“Sticky asked me during a team catch up, I said I would be interested in being involved. I was still very unsure what that meant and went back and forth on it a bit. Sticky followed up with me later,  in the end I decided it was an opportunity I needed to take,” said Williams.

The 36-year-old begins his role when the 19 player squad assembles for a selection camp to determine the team for the qualifiers in Thailand. A top three finish will see the Spinners earn a spot at the U23 World Championships in 2025.

Williams has managed the Roller Hawks since 2017 and says he’ll approach his role the same way despite the Spinners being a much younger group.

“I think the challenges are just the same as dealing with all groups of people. The biggest thing I have learned is just to laugh. I used to get more stressed about the little things that go wrong on a trip.  Something always goes a little bit wrong but we get through each trip.”

“I think the younger guys will be different. I think I’ll be fielding a lot more questions.  When I started as the Roller Hawks manager I was the one asking the questions.  Maybe organising them will be a bit more of a challenge. But everything is self contained at camp so hopefully that will make it easier.”

Williams has been around wheelchair basketball for 15 years. He first got involved through his dad Jim Williams who was coaching the Roller Hawks at the time to help make up the numbers at training; the younger Williams can now find himself immersed in the game every night of the week during the NWBL season.

“Dad was a former NBL player in the late 70's - 80's so I had no hope in not playing basketball.  Pretty typical basketball story, I grew up playing able-bodied Illawarra rep, local basketball and school basketball from probably 6 through to about 18.”

“I got involved with the Roller Hawks when I was around 21. At that time we didn't really have enough players to train during the season as people were away overseas playing internationally so with the encouragement of my dad who was the coach I was put into a chair on Wednesday night, then later started Roller Hawks training to add numbers.”

“It pretty quickly took over from regular basketball considering Roller Hawks train Tuesday and Thursday and Development on Wednesday. Just been doing it ever since.”

“I have been around the Roller Hawks guys and girls for a long time now. They are all great people in a great sport. I enjoy doing what I can to help and to be honest, being involved is mostly a fun job.”

The Spinners camp runs from 27th to 29th September with the AOZ Championships on 16th to 22nd November in Bangkok, Thailand.