THE TONY LEEN INTERVIEW: Born to be a coach

He’s still only 36, but basketball’s Women’s Superleague coach of the year James Weldon has already been coaching for half his life. The trick? Continually pushing himself outside his comfort zone in the search for new methods and insights, even if that’s an obscure tournament in eastern Europe. The UL Huskies coach doesn’t do down time.

IT’s quite perverse that the women’s Superleague coach of the year for the past two seasons is defending his reputation after a 45-match unbeaten run, but such is James Weldon’s place in the rarefied environment of the UL Huskies basketball team.

The double winners from 2012, who retained their Superleague Cup last night, make a persuasive case for being the most dominant women’s basketball team in history, and more than once it’s been suggested that any squad with luminaries such as Rachael Vanderwal (26 pts again last night), Rachel Clancy and Michelle Fahy barely require intervention from the bench.