Liz Mills

Liz Mills is an Australian basketball coach who, since 2011, has coached elite level men's club and national basketball teams in Africa. Mills is the former head coach of Bangui Sporting Club for the 2023 Road to BAL (Basketball Africa League).

Mills is the first female basketball head coach to lead a men's national team at a FIBA continental championship, as well as the first-ever female head coach in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) after debuting in 2022. She is also the first female head coach of a men's club team in Morocco, and subsequently in North Africa and the Middle East.

Mills began her coaching career in Sydney, in 2002 working with junior boys and girls teams, as well as senior women's teams. Since 2011, Mills has been a head coach and assistant coach in Africa of senior men's club teams, national men's university teams and national men's teams.

In 2021, Mills was the head coach of the Kenyan men's national team, becoming the only woman in the world at that time in charge of a men's national team not only in basketball but in any major sport. When she coached Kenya at AfroBasket 2021, she became the first and only female head coach in a men's continental championship (Afrobasket) since the International Basketball Federation FIBA was founded in 1932.

Coaching career Mills began her basketball coaching career in Sydney, Australia in 2002 whilst still in high school (Willoughby Girls High). She has coached junior boys and girls club teams, as well as representative girls teams for Northern Suburbs Basketball Association (NSBA), a representative club in North Sydney, Australia. Prior to relocating to Africa she coached a senior women's representative team for NSBA.

Prior to 2011, Mills had never coached men.

Having served as assistant coach of the Zambia men's national team for the 2017 Afrobasket Zone VI qualifiers and Cameroon men's basketball teams for 2019 FIBA World Cup African Qualifiers, Mills joined the Kenyan Morans as head coach in January 2021. She steered Kenya to qualifying for their first AfroBasket championship in 28 years, after beating 11-time African champions Angola 74-73 in Cameroon in February 2021 at the 2021 FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers. She left the team in May to pursue coaching opportunities with national teams in Africa. On 4 September 2023 Coach Mills was named as the head coach of Bangui Sporting Club for the upcoming 2024 Road to BAL. Road to BAL are the qualifiers for the 2024 Basketball Africa League.

On 2 December 2022, Mills signed for Ivorian team ABC Fighters, who earlier qualified for the 2023 BAL season. In their first appearance in the BAL, Mills lead the team to the playoffs, where they fell to Angolan club team Petro de Luanda in the quarter finals.

On 4 September 2023 Mills was announced as the head coach of Central African Republic club team Bangui Sporting Club for the upcoming 2024 Road to BAL. Mills declined to re-sign with Bangui Sporting Club for the 2024 Basketball Africa League due to the non-payment of her salary and bonus for the second round of the 2023 Road to BAL.

Personal Mills grew up in Sydney with a passion for coaching basketball since an early age.