The Reece family of Mitch, Charlie, Brooke and Matt are one of the Gold Coast’s most talented basketball families
Don’t be alarmed if you happen to stumble across a family waging war at your local basketball hoop. The Reece’s are simply breeding the next generation of Gold Coast basketball stars.
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DON’T be alarmed if you happen to stumble across a family waging war at your local basketball hoop.
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The Reece’s are simply breeding the next generation of Gold Coast basketball stars.
Kids Charli and Mitch have both shown glimpses of potential and promise while dad Matt’s 181 game NBL career speaks for itself.
Mum Brooke isn’t far from the action, serving as a team manager for various Seahawks outfits over the years as well as on the association’s board.
But it’s Matt, Charli and Reece who are known to battle it out in the backyard for family basketball supremacy.
“It never ends well,” joked Matt, a former Gold Coast Roller.
“There’s either tears or bloodshed.
“There’s a five year age gap between them but they’d fight over a stick.”
Charli added: “There’s always a bit of smack talk but we do go and shoot around but it does get a bit competitive.”
While Mitch reckons he wins most battles but: “It’s always very competitive.”
Both siblings have walked very different paths to where they are now and both have high hopes for their basketball futures but if it’s up to Matt, they could quit today and he’d still be satisfied.
“I’m glad they’re involved and whether they make it to the top or play socially down the track, as long as they enjoy the sport and have fun doing it,” he said.
“Mitchell I thought was always going to be there but Charli, we tried to get her into it at an early age and she didn’t want a bar of it.”
“It (being a basketball family) has its moments and there’s no getting away from it for them.”
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Charli Reece
IT took Charli Reece 12 years to fall in love with basketball and when she finally did, she scored her first competitive points for her opposition.
When it came to sport, nothing clicked for Reece until her early teens when her parents nudged her to commit.
“I was getting to that age where my parents said, you need to play a sport,” she said.
“I didn’t really play sport before that so I was a very late starter.
“Dad had obviously played so I tried it and fell in love with it.”
Despite her pedigree, it took Reece more than a year to learn basketball’s core fundamentals.
“My first points were actually for the opposition,” she joked.
“I think I caught the ball and just threw it up, not realising what end of the court we were at.
“It took me about a year or two to get a grasp of the skills and knowledge of the game and then it all just clicked.”
Carving out a career as an inside forward, Reece’s star quickly rose.
She joined the North Gold Coast Seahawks Under-16’s side and was part of the history-making Hillcrest Christian College basketball side who finished fourth overall at Nationals two years ago.
SBL was next and QBL followed.
“Playing QBL was a really big learning experience for me just having to step up as the junior of the team,” she said.
“I enjoyed earning the respect of the older players so I gained a lot out of that.”
As her high school career drew to a close, Reece was determined to take the next step.
Without her knowledge, former Seahawks development manager Greg Fox sent her playing tapes to the United States where they landed in the hands of St Francis College (Pennsylvania) coach Keila Whittington.
“Next thing I knew, they reached out to me in April last year and were keen,” Reece said.
“Up until grade 11, I didn’t want to go to college and was unsure of what I wanted to do.
“I decided to develop my game, that was the next big step and academically as well, I concluded that college was the next step.”
The 18-year-old travelled to America in early January, around halfway through St Francis’s college season, but has been forced home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reece is unsure when she will be able to return but knows she has a lot more to learn until she can push for a desired WNBL or European basketball contract.
“It was a culture shock to start,” she said.
“There were little things I had to adjust but I had to grow and become mentally tougher as well.
“It made me a better player towards the end of it despite only being there for three or four months.”
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Mitch Reece
MITCH Reece was destined to pick up a basketball at some point – all it took was sitting on the sidelines at his sister’s training.
In 2008, the family moved down to Adelaide to be closer to Matt’s family which is when Reece discovered the game.
“I was at Charli’s training and I saw a ball on the other side of the court so I just picked it up and started bouncing it around,” he said.
“I was brought to Charli’s training as a kid so I was surrounded by it.”
At 13-years-old, Reece has already surged past 190cm and established himself as an up and coming forward.
He may be young, but Reece remains firmly grounded and hopes to first improve his own game before potentially following in the footsteps of his dad and sister.
“I’ve had a few growth spurts but I’m not sure when my final one will be,” he said.
“I want to be the best I can be and go as far as I can in the sport.”
The Varsity College student currently plays representative basketball for the Seahawks in a team coached by his dad and sister.
“It has its good moments but if I don’t do something during a game, I’ll hear about it on the way back to the car,” Reece joked.
“They’re always trying to teach me and improve me as a player which is pretty cool.
“We play as a team and do what we enjoy.”
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