Tom Kyle

Tom Kyle (born 15 June 1959) is an Australian wheelchair basketball coach who coaches the Queensland Spinning Bullets and the Australian women's national wheelchair basketball team. He was assistant coach of the Australian men's national wheelchair basketball team from 2009 to 2013, during which time it won gold at the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championship, and silver at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.

Biography Tom Kyle was born on 15 June 1959 in Cooma, New South Wales, where his father worked for the Snowy Mountains scheme. As a boy he played cricket, and was captain of the Australian Capital Territory side at the age of 12. He also played rugby league, rugby union, Australian football, soccer and tennis. He began playing basketball when he was 12 or 13, and played with the Cooma Under 18 team when he was 14, and the senior men's team when he was 16. At that age he also began coaching, his first team being an Under 14 basketball side.

Kyle decided to become a basketball coach, and he repeated Year 12 in order to get sufficient marks for a scholarship to study Physical Education at the Wollongong Institute of Education, He completed a double major in Health and Physical Education, receiving degrees from both the Wollongong Institute of Education and the University of Wollongong, from which he graduated in 1983. While there he played basketball for the university, and coached some university sides, learning practical coaching skills from Adrian Hurley. A selection panel chaired by Basketball Australia's General Manager of High Performance, Steven Icke that also included Rollers' head coach Ettridge, former Australian Opals head coach Jan Stirling and the General Manager of Sport at the Australian Paralympic Committee, Michael Hartung, chose Kyle. In announcing his appointment, the chief executive officer of Basketball Australia, Kristina Keneally, said that "in Tom, we have a coach who has the ability to lead the team to future success and understands the expectations on the Gliders program." At the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship though, the Gliders came a disappointing sixth. The Gliders did not qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after finishing second to China at the 2015 Asia Oceania Qualifying Tournament. In August 2016, David Gould succeeded him as the Gliders' coach. Kyle went to Rio as assistant coach of the Rollers.

Achievements 2009: Gold at Paralympic World Cup (Australian Rollers) 2010: Gold at Wheelchair Basketball World Championship (Australian Rollers) 2011: NWBL Coach of the Year 2011: Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association Coach of the Year 2012: Silver at 2012 Summer Paralympic Games (Australian Rollers)