New Head Coach announced for GB Women’s Team

Following a comprehensive recruitment process, the British Basketball Federation has announced the new head coach for the Great Britain senior women’s team.

Former Spanish international basketball player, Anna Montañana, will be taking up the role immediately and she will become the first woman to lead the coaching of a GB senior basketball team.

Montañana, who played in the WNBA for the Minnesota Lynx, also played professionally in four different European countries including Spain, Czechia, France and Turkey. Anna moved into coaching after retiring as a player in 2015.

Over the last ten years, Anna has been Assistant Coach for several Spanish national youth teams, providing her with extensive experience of mentoring and developing players to excel at an international level.

Anna has coached youth teams at European and international competitions, helping to guide Spain to Under16 gold in 2016, and later supporting the Under 18 team in 2018 and 2022 and the Under 19 team in 2023 to silver medals.

To add to her impressive coaching CV, Montañana also has experience of coaching both men’s and women’s league teams in several different countries. She made history to become the first woman to be assistant coach in the ACB, to be the head coach in the pro Spanish league in Leb Plata and was also the first woman to be a Head Coach in the Colombian men’s pro league.

Anna was selected as the Spanish Coach Association’s Female Coach of the Year for the 2022-2023 season for her work as Head Coach for Lointek Gernika in the Spanish Liga Endesa. Her current league coaching role is as Head Coach of Jairis Hozono in Spain’s women’s Liga Endesa

Anna said: “I am truly honoured and excited to be appointed as the head coach of the Great Britain women’s national team.

“It is a great challenge to create a unique identity for the national team program while preparing them to compete at the highest level on the global stage.

“I am very thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the already exciting development of basketball in Great Britain, and I hope our team will continue to inspire the next generation of youth to excel on and off the court.”

Temi Fagbenle, captain of the Great Britain Women’s team, met with Anna as part of the recruitment process. Temi said of Anna’s appointment: “Anna’s coaching and player resume is very impressive, but her character and passion for the often overlooked, yet crucial, intangibles of the game speak volumes.

“Having played, coached and succeeded at the highest levels, she knows what it takes to win against top competition. I am looking forward to working with her to actualise our team’s potential.”

General Manager for the GB Women’s Team, Mark Lloyd, who’ll be working closely with Anna, said: “It’s fantastic to welcome Anna, together with her incredible enthusiasm, drive and energy to the Great Britain basketball staff.

“I know she is looking forward to the challenge of head coaching our senior team but her broad experience in both professional leagues and across the age group national teams in Spain means she is also well placed to help to embed the GB way throughout our women’s basketball pathway.

“These are such exciting times to be part of women’s and girls’ basketball in the UK.”

Anna’s first task will be to consider how to best prepare the senior women’s team for the November window, when they will take on Denmark in their third qualifier for the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 tournament.

Anna will still honour her previous agreement with the Spanish federation as Head Coach of the Spanish Under 18 team at EuroBasket this summer.