01/09/2026
🔴🔵The Berri Blazers are excited to introduce Phil Blake as our club Development Officer.🔵🔴
Who is Phil Blake?
⭐Phil is a highly credentialed basketball development coach in South Australia, holding Basketball Australia Association level coach qualification, backed with 40 + years of high performance coaching.
⛹️♂️Phil's connection to the Berri Blazers dates back to the 1990's where he was an inaugural premiership player in the 1996/97 season, and later winning another premiership in 2001/2002 with Berri. During this period he was also the Riverland High Performance Coach for ten years, coordinating the Riverland High performance program, formally known as ITC (Intensive training centre) where many of the most recent RBA basketball legends passed through Phil's development program. During this period, Phil was responsible for developing twenty six Riverland basketballers that represented SA Country at the Australian Country Cup.
👨🏫After relocating to Adelaide after the Riverland, Phil's coaching journey continued to district basketball, building a long coaching history with the Sturt Sabres Basketball Club including coaching for 20 years, both male and female, Division 1 to Division 4. During this period Phil also held the Presidency for five years and the Vice Presidency for two years with Sturt.
🏀Phil's other accolades include:
8 years as State coach for both South Australia and Victoria.
Selected to coach at the National Junior Camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
Coached a number of NBL and NBA players including - David Andersen (NBL-NBA- 4 x Australian Olympian), Lachlan Olbrich (NBL, College, NBA, Japan), Ben Griscti (Adelaide 36ers), Jacob Rigoni (Adelaide 36ers).
What will Phil bring to the club?
Teaching and improving basketball fundamentals in junior basketball players to set them up for long term success in their basketball journey.
Helping coaches improve their knowledge of the game and coaching methods, and building a sustainable and successful basketball program for the Berri Blazers now, and into the future.
We are really excited by Phil's knowledge and passion and can't wait to hit the court with him.
Parents, please stay tuned for a parent information session with Phil in the coming weeks.
Let's go Blazers! 💙♥️
