Quick Facts
Biography
John Triscari (born 4 August 1957) is an Australian basketball coach. He was the coach of the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, where the team won a silver medal. He is a long-time coach in the State Basketball League, currently in the position of head coach of the South West Slammers men's team.
Basketball and teaching
Previously the head of health and physical education at Rockingham Senior High School, Triscari currently serves as deputy principal of Safety Bay Senior High School. Being based south of Perth, Triscari has had coaching stints with the Rockingham Flames and Mandurah Magic's State Basketball League sides. In 2015, he coached the Kalamunda Eastern Suns men's team. In 2016 and 2017, he coached the Cockburn Cougars women's team. For the 2019 season, he was appointed coach of the South West Slammers men's team.
Wheelchair basketball
Perth Western Stars
Triscari was appointed the coach of the Perth Western Stars in the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) in 2007. "Basically," he told the media, "my goal is to develop the women's team to get them winning finals." This goal proved to be elusive. Fronted by young talents Cobi Crispin and Amber Merritt, the Western Stars made the WNWBL grand final in 2008, only to be beaten by the dominant Sydney-based Hills Hornets. The Hornets delivered a second grand final loss to the Stars in 2009. The Western Stars went into the grand final as favourites in 2010, but suffered yet another defeat at the hands of the Sydney team, now renamed the Sydney Uni Flames. In 2012, the Western Stars made the grand final again, only to be defeated this time by the Victoria-based Dandenong Rangers. Finally, in the 2013 grand final, the Western Stars came from being nine points down at three quarter time to claim their first ever WNWBL championship.
Gliders
In 2009, Triscari was named as the coach of the Australian women's national wheelchair basketball team, commonly known as the Gliders. At the same time, Ben Ettridge was named as head of the men's team, the Rollers. Ettridge had worked for Triscari as a physical education teacher at Rockingham three years before, but had since become the coach of an Italian team. Ettridge had then become West Australian director of elite coaching and player development at Basketball Australia, thereby becoming Triscari's boss.
Triscari's first tournament as the Gliders' coach was the 2009 Osaka Cup in Japan in February 2009. It was an auspicious start, with the Gliders beating the 2008 Summer Paralympics champions, the USA team, 57–38. Despite losses to Canada and the host nation, the Gliders came back to defeat the USA again and claim the Osaka Cup. The Gliders would win the Osaka Cup again under Triscai in 2010 and 2012, and were runners-up in 2011.
The Gliders competed in the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Birmingham, where they finished fourth, and the Four Nations Tournament in Canada in July and August 2010, where they defeated the USA 55–37 to claim the gold medal. A major hurdle was qualifying for the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London. The team had to finish first or second at the 2011 Asia Oceania Zone Championship in Goyang, South Korea. A loss to Japan meant that the Gliders had to beat Korea to qualify for London, which they did, 84–11. In the run-up to the London games in 2012, the Gliders won the Osaka Cup in Japan, came second in another four-nations tournament in Frankfurt, defeated Germany in the Gliders World Challenge in Sydney, and the United States in the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.
The Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics posted wins against Brazil, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, but lost to Canada. It was enough to advance the Gliders to the quarter-finals, where they beat Mexico. The Gliders then defeated the United States by a point to set up a final clash with Germany. The Gliders lost 44–58, and earned the silver medal.
Triscari received a Coach of the Year Award from the Western Australian Department of Sports and Recreation in 2012, and again in 2013. He was succeeded as head coach of the Gliders by Tom Kyle in May 2013.