Tracey is the current coach of the 16.2 girls team. She brings enthusiasm, energy and vitality to the role. She is definitely one of the people creating the Magic at Hawthorn.
As a young athlete, Tracey played basketball in the Eltham program and at a young age discovered her life-long passion for sport, health and fitness. Tracey has coached at domestic and representative levels and has recently been part of Basketball Victoria’s high-performance program as Development Coach for the Vic Metro Under 18 Girls.
Tracey’s basketball heroes include Michelle Timms and Robyn Maher, two of the most talented, focused, relentless and tenacious athletes to play basketball for Australia. These role models have helped Tracey focus her coaching passion towards aggressive defensive style basketball. Tracey feels exceptionally fortunate to be able to coach alongside Tom and Robyn Maher in the Hawthorn Magic Under 16 girls program.
Outside Basketball, Tracey is a keen runner (there’s a couple of marathon’s under her belt), swimmer and lifter. She loves pilates and strength training and brings a holistic approach to her work with athletes in the Hawthorn program.
During the lockdown, Tracey is motivating her athletes to stay match fit and game-ready through body-weight strength exercises (think squats, lunges, plank, step-ups, dips) and regular runs and walks. Staying mentally fit is also really important to Tracey and she recommends listening to motivating podcasts including the Melbourne Boomers – Women with Drive podcast, The Sports MAP podcast and Talking Split by Basketball Victoria. She’s also been reading some inspirational books and suggests Bashar Houli’s biography (an excellent read).  Tracey’s hubby is a keen cook and has spent lockdown refining his renowned fish taco recipe (he makes a wicked paella too )
Tracey loves the WNBL, she follows the Phoenix and United in the NBL (and has loved watching Goojian inspire Illawarra to move up the ladder this year). Phoenix is her WNBA go-to but also loves Seattle (with Ezzy & Sami Whitcomb) and Bec Allen’s progress with Valencia. Tracey just can’t get enough of basketball.
Tracey sees the Boomers and the Opals as the real deal this Olympics for medals. Whilst disappointing for Australia to miss out on the 3×3 competition, Tracey will be following both the basketball and the 3×3 closely. Away from the court, Tracey is keen to see Bendere Oboya compete in the 400m, (coached by the exceptional athletics coach, John Quinn) and will also be cheering (continuously) for Ash Barty and Jess Fox in her third Olympics (slalom canoe).
Excellence, teamwork and continuous improvement to an athlete’s contribution to the team are the key values that Tracey instils in her athletes.
“The standout element of the Magic program is the support and high-performance development pathway for Hawthorn Athletes and Coaches. This is what defines the strength of the program.  I love the training structures and formats at Hawthorn and relish the opportunity to train co-operatively as an age group regularly – it gives a strong sense of belonging to the Hawthorn Program, as well as the individual Team. I also love the opportunity to work with a bigger cohort of athletes whilst sharing and learning from other coaches in the age group”
Tracey has experienced a lot of success within the Hawthorn Magic program assisting Michael Dimattina at the Under 14s level previously. Tracey is the absolute doyenne of the program and her significant contribution is valued and appreciated.
