New coach ‘excited for the opportunity to lead Malta’
Malta Basketball Association president Paul Sultana expressed his delight following the appointment of Alan Walls as head coach of men’s national basketball team.
Walls, an American FIBA licensed international basketball coach and administrator with 28 years of experience, will oversee the national team’s preparations for the upcoming FIBA European Championship for Small Countries, being staged in Malta between June 28 and July 3.
Malta have been drawn against Andorra and Azerbaijan in Group A, while Armenia, Gibraltar and San Marino are in Group B.
Commenting on Walls’s appointment as national coach, Sultana said: “We are very pleased that Alan Walls has accepted our offer to become the new coach of our men’s national team. In addition to his qualifications, Walls brings a wealth of experience, having been involved in basketball coaching for almost three decades, and is held in very high esteem in international basketball circles.
“We are confident that Walls has the right attributes and expertise to lead our men’s national team to a successful participation in the 2022 FIBA European Championship for Small Countries being hosted by the Malta Basketball Association.”
On his part, Walls is looking forward to the experience of leading the Malta national team in an international tournament on home soil.
“I’m really excited for the opportunity this summer to coach Malta in the 2022 European Championship for Small Countries which will be hosted in Malta,” Walls said. “This is great opportunity for the team to go for gold on home soil.”
Walls has worked at different levels of basketball, from youth, high school and NCAA (DI, II, III levels) to professional and national teams in 17 countries. He has worked with the national federations of Turkey, Romania, Palestine, Mongolia and El Salvador, and coached and/or conducted camps and clinics throughout the United States – including his native Hawai’i – Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, China, Hong Kong, Kenya and Israel.
In 2010, Walls was engaged by the Turkish Basketball Federation to be the camp director of the FIBA Children of the World Basketball Camp at the FIBA World Championships.
