Styliani Kaltsidou has been named as Head Coach of British Basketball’s Senior Women’s team

Styliani Kaltsidou has been named as Head Coach of British Basketball’s Senior Women’s team.

Currently Head Coach at WBC Athinaikos, in her native country of Greece, Kaltsidou brings significant experience to the role from both her accomplished playing career and success in coaching.

During her two years as Women’s Head Coach at London Lions, the team were back-to-back Champions in the Women’s British Basketball League and Betty Codona Trophy, as well as victorious in the 2024 FIBA EuroCup Championship.

Kaltsidou understands what it takes to compete at National level having represented Greece at senior level for 12 years before working as Slovenia Women’s Assistant Coach – a role she has held since 2021.

She will join with the Great Britain side next month as they begin preparations for their first FIBA EuroBasket 2027 qualifier at home against Switzerland on Wednesday 12 November.

Speaking about her appointment, Kaltsidou said: ‘I’m looking forward to working with this group of players and people and figuring out how together we can reach our top level, performance and culture wise.

I want to see this group achieving their maximum potential. Of course, this is something that requires time and continuous effort from every part of the team, players, staff, federation and this is the route we are going. We want to build a culture where everyone will feel the National Team as “home”, will enjoy being a part of it, ready to fight and willing to put our egos under the needs of the Team. Performance wise we want to be a tough team, aggressive on both ends of the floor, play with speed and high intensity.Styliani Kaltsidou

Kaltsidou began her professional playing career with Galaxia Thessaloniki and played for a number of Greek sides, before joining ANO Glyfada where she won the Greek Cup for the first time in 2003.Later, when representing Esperides, Kaltsidou won this title a further four times between 2006-2009, while also winning the Greek Championship in 2006 and 2008.

Her success continued following a move to French side Bourges Basket, where she enjoyed a special relationship with the club and its supporters.During her time there she overcame a number of serious injuries and won the French Championship for three consecutive seasons, as well as the French Cup in 2010 – the same year she was ranked 16th in FIBA Europe's European Women's Player of the Year poll.

Returning to Greece in 2016, Kaltsidou twice more won the double - the Greek Championship and Cup - with Olympiakos before finishing her career in Poland where she completed another season haul in 2018-19 winning the Polish double – Championship and Cup with Polkowice.

While playing for her national side, Kaltsidou reached the FIBA Women's EuroBasket top five with Greece, finishing 5th in 2009 and 4th in 2017 – an achievement which ranks highly in her playing memories.

‘I will never forget the emotions we felt when we beat Turkey in 2017, and we qualified for the final four of EuroBasket for the first time in the history of Greek basketball.However, the moments we had together with my teammates in practice, the conversations in the rooms, in the locker room after wins or losses, will always be in my mind because it’s these small moments that build the chemistry and create the bonds in a team.’

Kaltsidou began her coaching career as Assistant Coach at Maroussi BC in Greece in 2019 before working as Assistant Coach at Olympiacos WBC and then Head Coach at EFAOZ WBC.

Reflecting on the impact that her playing career has had on her coaching style, Kaltsidou said: ‘My experience as a player helps me a lot to understand the emotions and the needs of the players on and off court and that helps me create better communication with them.’