Basketball: Stephen Buttigieg Appointed technical director of Belgian club Dames Leuven

Malta Independent Thursday, 12 May 2011, 00:00 Last update: about 14 years ago

Stephen Buttigieg, a Maltese coach currently living in Belgium, above, has recently been appointed Technical Director of Basketclub Dames Leuven, a Belgian club competing in the Second Division of the Flemish Basketball League.

Buttigieg was a coach well known for developing young players in Malta. He led three clubs, Floriana, Hibernians and Footwork, to promotion from the Second Division with young squads and also coached several Junior national teams.

Since arriving in Belgium, Buttigieg has coached in different International Schools in Brussels, and was also appointed Basketball Director of the Brussels Sports Association, a volunteer organisation organising several sports for youths in and around Brussels. He also attended a coaching clinic held by FIBA during the inaugural Under-17 World Championships held in Hamburg last summer.

Last season Buttigieg was approached by Basketclub Dames Leuven to oversee a number of coaches in the junior section of the club. He ran several clinics for the coaches which were considered a great success. He was also invited to form the technical programme for the club’s summer camp in De Panne.

The club is very ambitious, with Leuven (Louvain in French) being one of the biggest clubs catering for women’s basketball in the region of Brabant Flanders. Hence the committee decided it needed to form a long term strategy with an aim of reaching the Flemish first division despite the very young age of the players in its senior team.

With this in mind the club formed a Sport Policy Steering Committee (SSB) with Buttigieg being one of three persons invited to join the committee. He was also appointed Technical Director of the club for season 2011/2012.

One of the first jobs for the SSB was to propose a new sports policy for the club which was recently unanimously approved by the club’s board. Representatives of the coaches at different levels within the club will now form a Technical Committee which will be led by Buttigieg with the intention of developing a team and individual programmes for the club.