Ipswich Basketball Club’s Adam Robinson has announced his decision to step down from his position as Senior Men’s Head Coach, to pursue his passion for developing young players within the club’s junior programme next season.
Adam has been the Head Coach of the Men’s team since 2019, when he led Ipswich to 4th place in NBL Division Two South that season, before COVID-19 cut what looked like a potentially deep playoff run short. The following season, despite numerous attempts from Basketball England to find a way to allow NBL D2 to qualify to play through the pandemic, the season was eventually lost, while in 2021/22 was something of a roller-coaster season for Robinson and his team, who suffered an almost entire roster overhaul before Christmas, with the teams goals going from a potential playoff push to fight for survival, after the teams two leading scorers chose to leave, with several key role players subsequently following, just before Christmas. Over his three years in charge, Coach Robinson has led Ipswich to an 18-21 record in league play.
Prior to taking on the Senior Men’s role, Adam had two very successful seasons with the u16 boys team, helping develop and prepare some of the programmes best young players for life at our Copleston based Academy (IBA). Adam led the u16 boys to the Final Four in 2018, a team that featured two-time EABL National Player of the Year Ethan Price, as well as a host of other young players such as Seb Mobee, Danny Manning, Ahmeed Yusoof and Jacob Morgan. And it is at the Academy where Adam has played a major role in developing not only the boys, but also the girls programme into a national powerhouse. Adam works as not only the Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Elite Academy, but has worked closely alongside Head Coach Nick Drane for many years as an assistant coach.
The decision to move back into the junior programme is one that Head Coach Nick Drane is in full support of, “The work Adam has done in the junior programme really laid the foundation for one of the best generations our boys programme has ever had. The likes of Ethan and Jacob benefitted immensely from Adam’s coaching and ability to set a culture for the players to follow. We need these kids coming into the academy knowing what to expect, and it’s evident that Adam has been massively missed at the younger age groups – I think this a huge news for the club and academy”. Said Drane.
On the move back into a more player development-based role Coach Robinson said “It’s been a huge honour to coach the senior men’s team over the past 2+ seasons. I’ve had the pleasure of coaching some incredibly talented players. Most importantly I feel I’ve been able to successfully help our younger players transition between the academy and the senior team, which has always been at the core of our senior set up. The pathway at Ipswich basketball club has always been something I’m incredibly passionate about, and the success of the girls and women programme over the past few years shows how players can successfully transition through every part of the pathway. We have some incredibly talented boys at Ipswich basketball too and having learnt so much over the past 3 seasons I feel, for the time being at least, my skill set and experience as a coach can really help make our pathway stronger”.
On replacing Robinson, Drane added “It’s not an easy job to find an appropriately qualified person for our Men’s team. Adam did a fantastic job, especially through such a difficult period of time due to the pandemic. The Ipswich Men’s team is in it’s 10th season and jumped pretty quickly from Division Four to Division Two, and was knocking on the door for promotion to Division One for a few seasons. That’s ultimately where we want to be, but that is way easier said than done. We won’t rush into an appointment – whoever we get needs to be the best person for the job, and not a quick fix. It’s an exciting opportunity”.
Ipswich Basketball Club would like to thank Adam for his amazing service to the club, and the men’s team over the past three years and are delighted that such an accomplished and well-respected coach will again be working with the youngsters in the programme who are looking to take their skills to the next level.