18th June 2009

Come September Shawn Dennis will be browsing through the situations vacant advertisements.

"I could be pulling beers at Westshore Inn or doing what I can," the coach told SportToday last night. His comments come after the end of the National Basketball League season for the 0800 Easy LPG Hawks on Tuesday when they lost away to the Wellington Saints during the first quarterfinal.

Before that Dennis, who will be based in Hawke's Bay, will also coach the New Zealand women's basketball team. The Tall Ferns play a test match against Australia in Wellington on August 3 and then have return fixture in Canberra on September 2.

"That's the hard thing about being a full-time professional coach. You have to roll with the punches.

"I'd love to work in my profession, but that's not always possible in this environment."

Taking stock of the Hawks' season, Dennis said he was proud of what they had achieved amid great growth as a unit.

"We did everything right to win the game (on Tuesday night) but we lost our way and that's a hard lesson to learn.

"The young players are stepping up their work and the future is looking very bright," he said, adding today's mutual individual evaluations would be an opportune time to sound out players' commitments to the next season.

"They are all extremely 'coach-able' but we need time to reflect on their performances and get inside their thinking zone."

Keeping the core of the new-look team, he felt, was the way to go but accepted players might have different agendas.

"They have to be honest in their appraisal and from that we can see who to bring back. I'd like to think we can succeed as a team."

Dennis rued a poor pre-season build-up. The problem arose primarily because the previous Hawks franchise got into financial problems, prompting fears the Hawks weren't going to compete this season.

However, current co-franchise owners Jeremy Bayliss, who also owns Westshore Inn, and Rod Earnshaw, along with Dennis, successfully appealed to the Bay fans and sponsors to bail the code out of the financial doldrums.

Former co-captains Paora Winitana and Paul Henare left a vacuum in leaving for Christchurch Cougars.

Said Dennis: "The financial situation is awesome right now. My understanding is that they have settled several debts which they didn't have to."

Next season Dennis hopes to sign up the New Zealand players early so the import requirements can be established early to allow the team time to gel before the team tips off.

"There won't be any changes in mid-season," he said, referring to the premature end to US import John "JT" Thomas' season because they could not find common ground for Thomas to operate as team player.

For the first time, Dennis also allowed SportToday to attend the Hawks quarter-final pre-match, halftime and post-match briefings on Tuesday night.

"I find the media can be a little ill-informed about the way we operate sometimes. I have nothing to hide," he said.