Staff and Volunteers
Sport and major events have always played an important role in the City and, in many cases, have become the focus for regeneration, employment and have supported wider opportunities for its citizens to become involved in sport.
Manchester has always been synonymous with football; however, over the past 18 years, the City’s focus on bidding to host two Olympic Games, 1996 and 2000, and then bidding successfully to host the XV11 Commonwealth Games in 2002 (CG2002), has identified a broader opportunity to invest in sport and establish partnerships with National Governing bodies.
Following the huge success in delivering the 2002 games in Manchester, one of the high points was the interface of the community/volunteers held up as the face of the City, meeting and greeting 72 nations, Royalty, officials and spectators.
As with all local clubs, volunteers are critical to the ongoing ability of the Club to survive. We have 333 volunteers supporting the Club on a weekly basis.
Following on from the success of the Club’s development, competition structure and hosting events, volunteers will be required to ensure the smooth running of all activities related to the Club.
Feb 2010
Information about the team at the Amaechi Basketball Centre
Joe Forber
The Amaechi Basketball Centre was Joe’s brainchild and, as Director, he works full-time to ensure its success and growth.
Joe has been coaching Basketball for 40 years, starting at Wilmslow Grammar School, with whom he won many National trophies. Then, he moved into Junior National League Basketball in charge of the Under 19 programmes at Manchester United, Manchester Giants and Chester Jets.
He has produced 10 full International players, including the legendary John Amaechi, who has played in Greece, Italy and Spain,and also in the NBA for Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic.
Joe started this Club in 1997 and it has made amazing progress, with 16 National League teams, its own full-time Basketball Centre and over 2000 youngsters playing each week. His wife, Maggie, is also a key figure in the club.
Maggie Forber
Joe’s wife and helper. Over many years, she has made herself indispensable in the running of the Club and now plays a key part in the administration of the Club and the Centre. Maggie has retired from teaching Mathematics after 38 years. In this time she has taught at two schools - Wilmslow High School, and Sir John Deane's Sixth Form College, Northwich. She runs the financial side of things and also takes a keen interest in the progress and careers of the players.
She is also a Table Official and has many years of experience of scoring and timekeeping at BBL level. She puts this experience at the disposal of the Centre, officiating at the table for Club games most weekends, and has helped many members of the Club to gain their National Table Officiating Awards.
Without her knowledge, hard work and ability and her encouragement and tolerance, it is unlikely Joe would have ever got the Centre into existence.
Jeff Jones
Jeff came from College Basketball in Oklahoma in the USA over 30 years ago, to play for Manchester Giants and spent most of his playing time with them and Manchester United. Once he married Freda, he was eligible to play for England and did so on many occasions.
When his playing days were over, he became a coach in the BBL League with the Giants and then Derby Storm.
He is now very much involved with the Club, coaching the EBL Division 1 Manchester Magic team and running many of the Club's coaching sessions. All three of his children are top-class players.
An extremely valuable asset to the Club, with his tremendous expertise in developing young Basketball players, he is indispensable.
Jeff was appointed as Basketball Manager for the City of Manchester in December 2009.
Graham Williams
An ex - British Colleges player, Graham started his basketball career as a player at Burnage High School in Manchester. When he returned to Burnage as a teacher, he coached the boys to numerous successes including two National Schools Championships and had many outstanding teams and individuals.
Graham was a founder member of the Club, along with Joe and Maggie, giving enormous amounts of his time to all parts of the programme. He has so enjoyed his basketball with us that he decided to take up the offer of a full-time position, which began in January 2000. His basketball knowledge and experience has been of great benefit to all the youngsters over the years. Graham retired in Summer 2004, but continues to be an outstanding coach of our National League teams on a voluntary basis.
Tony Middleton
Tony first became attracted to us by acting as Team Manager for the National League teams in which his son, Paul, played. He so enjoyed this time in basketball that, when the opportunity came to change careers, he did so with relish. He joined us as an administrator in May 2004, and is now the General Manager on the site.
Freda Jones
Freda started work with us as a full timer in January 2011. For many years, she had given sterling voluntary time to the Club in many areas, including major events and the National League Girls programme. Apart from general administration, she is now in charge of all major events, including the Haris Tournament, The Sureshot Cup Finals and the Senior Men's and Women's Final Fours. She also does all the National League fixturing for 16 teams. She is the wife of Jeff, mother of James, Callum and Georgia, so she knows her basketball inside out. She is the Assistant General Manager to Tony.
Richard Hill
Richard has always shown a great enthusiasm for coaching and began his coaching career at Stockport at the age of 15, when he was able to take the younger Stockport National League teams. He felt that, in order to develop his coaching expertise further, he had to move to Manchester which he duly did at the beginning of the 2008-09 season.
He attended Reddish Vale School in Stockport and after Sixth Form studies he began a Sports Course at MMU (Crewe and Alsager), but, after deciding it did not suit him, he began to work for our Club on a full-time basis. He now combines considerable community work with coaching duties at both Under 16 and Under 14 Boys National League level. He has ambitions to move up the coaching ladder and use his coaching skills at the highest possible level for him.
Robert Fairley
Robert joined the staff in 2010 as a full timer. He was a National League player with our Club for many years in very successful teams. After his Sixth Form studies finished, he did his Psychology degree at MMU and, because of his love of basketball, he has ended up at Amaechi Basketball Centre. His responsibilities include running the Friday night Community Leagues and being responsible for Secondary School links. He spends a considerable amount of time on National League coaching in both Boys and Girls programmes.
Brian Dobson
Sadly, Brian died on Sunday 25 April 2010, very shortly after his beloved Magic had won the Final Four National Championship against Derby, at his second home, the Amaechi Basketball Centre.
In his time with the Club,he was an inspiration to all for his dedication, enthusiasm and his meticulous organisation of Events at the Club. Always wishing to deflect credit for his achievements, and continually remaining in the background when the plaudits were given, he will be irreplaceable for the Club.
Our thoughts go out to Marjorie, his wife, Mandy his daughter, and his two grandchildren, Abigail and Josh.
