Parham-Ammar’s road to head coach

Pirates’ Aja Parham-Ammar has re-signed for another year to hopefully lead the South West Metro Pirates’ NBL1 Men’s side further than where they got last year. 

Parham-Ammar is one of two female head coaches in the league’s men’s competition, along with NBL1 South’s Dandenong Rangers’ Sam Woosnam.

The 2023 Basketball Queensland Female Coach of the Year revealed her coaching habits and described her role as more of a people manager. Focusing more on player development with the team.

“You have to really know your players, understand them, understand how to get the best out of them. Development is more so, they come to you to get better,” Parham-Ammar told NBL Media.  

“You’ve got to get the guys to buy into the system, so it’s more about people management rather than anything."

She made the move from the Southern Districts Spartans to the Pirates this past season, leading the team to the Semi-Finals after they finished last on the ladder in 2022. 

The team’s success was a credit to Parham-Ammar’s player development prowess – getting the best out of young superstar Roman Siulepa and on-the-rise players Kai Woodfall and Ben Volkman. 

As well as her coaching role, Parham-Ammar owns a company specialising in player development, strength and conditioning. She explained how her career started through player development.

“I’ve played professionally for about 15 years under different types of levels in different countries. I really fell in love with this league, studying the game, knowing the game tape and studying your opponent,” she said.

“I’ve done player development with my company, Sports Mindset, for probably about 12 years. So the development side I was really involved in, even when I was in my playing days.”

She started her coaching journey under NBL legend and Adelaide 36ers’ coach CJ Bruton, when she was the Spartans' assistant coach in the Queensland State League (now NBL1 North).  

“Coaching didn’t come into my mind until post-career when CJ Bruton told me, ‘You’re going to be my assistant’,” she said. 

“It was a matter of learning how to communicate with athletes, because they all are there to win, they want to win. Most players that you recruit play on a serious level, and contracted players are there for the right reasons.

 “It’s a matter of them buying in and communicating, and CJ (Bruton) is really good at that, he’s great at personal relationships with his players.” 

Photo credit: ShootnHoops