By Nick Creely
From humble-beginnings at the age of seven, Larissa Anderson has grown into one of the WNBL’s most prolific coaches. In the process of her rise to head coach of the Dandenong Rangers, Anderson chats to Nick Creely about her development as a coach, as well as juggling family life with running a business. Throughout her journey she has become a pioneer for budding female coaches in Australia, and she does it all with the vigour of a champion.
“For me personally, the biggest things are to create a great culture, be honest and upfront, and treat people the way you want to be treated.”
Life can be hectic. Sometimes it can seem like the daily grind is becoming too much. But there are certain people on the planet who seem to relish a challenge.
Larissa Anderson is one of those people.
From a young age, Larissa fell in love with basketball, instantly drawn to the game, and the art of coaching.
“I’ve been playing since the age of seven, and I just loved it, and I discovered when I was younger through all my part-time jobs, that I just loved coaching – I always have since a young age,” she explained.
“I ended up actually going out and starting my own little business doing lots of individual coaching with kids, coached a couple of junior teams, and would also coach at camps and clinics during the year. Then going into uni I actually developed my own role model program going into schools.
“It’s always been a big part of me, and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do – in my last few seasons while still playing I decided to try and step up and give coaching SEABL a crack at my junior club, the Nunawading Spectres and they backed me in.
“I was quite young but absolutely loved it, I found it really helped me develop as a player also. You look at the game in a whole new way when coaching and that transferred into how I played during my final WNBL season’s.
“Once I finished WNBL, I had a year off basketball all together and had my beautiful daughter Emma. I knew after some time off that I wanted to get back onto coaching and was appointed the SEABL coach at the Dandenong Rangers, and the rest is history.”
Throughout the 39-year-old’s illustrious career, which began in 1995 at the Dandenong Rangers, Anderson would go on to become a great of the Melbourne Boomers, formerly known as the Bulleen Boomers, before returning to the club she is now coaching to significant success.
Only recently, she was named as one of the top Dandenong Rangers players in their history, in a club that has been extraordinarily successful for such a sustained period.
Before taking on the role of WNBL coach, Anderson was groomed as the Rangers SEABL coach, a semi-professional men and women’s competition – she has been named SEABL’s Coach of the Year a whopping four times.
But in the modern-age of coaching, Anderson has learnt along her journey that being a people-coach is just as important as having a strong tactical nous.
“I have found no matter who you are coaching, you can never communicate enough,” she explained.
“For me, I started at seven, and in-between there I lived in Sydney for a few years, collectively over time I’ve just picked up a lot of things from coaches that I’ve noticed they have done well – I’ve picked up a lot of little things over the journey.
“I’m only 39, but I’ve coached for a long time now when you look back at my involvement over the years, but I’m always learning more, you can never stop learning and developing skills as you go.
“For me personally, the biggest things are to create a great culture, be honest and upfront, and treat people the way you want to be treated.
“I believe 80 per cent of coaching is about people management – you need to seriously have those skills, until you get into that role it’s hard to really understand why.
“I believe if you know and understand your players, then you are a good step of the way to getting the best out of them – player management is definitely a large part but obviously you still need to have a tactical nous about you for sure, it’s hard to win games without a strong set of tactics and game-plans.”
Signed as the first-female coach of the Dandenong Rangers in their 25-year history, Anderson is one of the only professional female sporting coaches in Victoria, if not the country, and said that she was proud of her achievements, particularly when it influenced the important people in her life.
“I’m pleased that a lot more female coaches have come through and continue to come through – There are so many wonderful female coaches that I’ve looked up to over the years, I think there are less female coaches because it is a real challenge to juggle everything. Coaching at the same time as having a family and running a business, it can be done but it is hard – I have to sacrifice a lot of time with family and friends during the season but at the end of the day I really love coaching and am grateful for the opportunity,” she said.
“I hope I’m showing my seven-year-old daughter that anything’s possible, that if Mum can chase her dreams, so can she – that’s a completely separate entity to it, and right now Emma is absolutely loving it – she’s gone from having no interest in the game to being completely obsessed.”
Outside from her life in the sporting bubble, Anderson runs a PR business with her mother Julie, as well as juggling a family life, something she admits can be difficult.
“To be honest I sit down sometimes and think, ‘OK, how am I going to get all this done?’ – I try and be the best mum and wife I can, and mum and I work really hard on our PR Business. It is just her and me, if we are not working, things won’t be done,” she explained.
“Time management is so imperative when you’re so busy – but I wouldn’t have it any other way to be honest.
“There are tougher days for sure where everything needs to be done at once, but you just find a way and I’m very lucky to have such a wonderful support network with my husband and family – but life can be pretty crazy through the season.”
With the WNBL each year improving its standard, Anderson said it is a privilege to be part of such an illustrious and competitive competition, and is excited about the growth of the game despite a lack of coverage.
“A lot of clubs are starting to live-stream their games which is great, and I hope that more games are shown moving forward – participation rates continue to climb, but for some reason the women’s senior coverage is dropping off a little bit despite its popularity,” she said.
“Every supporter needs to get out and support their teams, physically turn up to games and continue to do so.
“I know the WNBL and all of us together are doing all we can – this league has been a big part of my life for over 20 years now going from playing to coaching and I’m very proud to be a part of it – the athletes are phenomenal and wonderful role-models for young women, I have no doubt we will rise to the top again soon, because you can never keep such great women down!”
