Basketball in the ACT has long been built on invaluable contributions from the local basketball community, with BACT’s Honours and Awards Committee created to ensure these outstanding contributions receive due recognition.

At BACT’s Annual General Meeting at the Ainslie Football Club on Tuesday, 25 February 2025, four long-term servants of our sport were awarded the highest individual honour available, Life Membership of Basketball ACT.

All four worthy individuals have been involved with basketball in the ACT for many years, sacrificing hundreds of hours of their time for the good of the game, and filling a wide variety of roles with clubs in our region and beyond including playing, coaching, officiating, administration and Board activities.

Congratulations to Brad Barnes, Grant Keys, Paul Clowry, and Tony Plunkett on their awards of Life Membership of Basketball ACT.

Brad Barnes has been involved in basketball as a Player and a Coach in the ACT for more than thirty years, in that time acting with integrity and a love of the sport that continues to demonstrate a commitment to the values of BACT.

Brad played with the Canberra Gunners between 1992 and 1998, before moving straight into an assistant coach role for two seasons, and from there graduating to Gunners Head Coach from 2001 to 2006.

He was the SEABL East Conference Championship winning coach in 2003 and was voted the SEABL East Conference Coach of the Year in 2004. Brad went on to become Director of Coaching at Marist College for eight years and coach ACT junior athletes from 2018 to 2022.

Brad remains involved in the game, coaching the Weston Creek Woden Dodgers Men’s Senior Premier League 1 side for the past two years.

Grant Keys has been engaged with basketball in Canberra at all levels and in a broad variety of areas for three decades, and shares a passion for the development of the basketball landscape.

First involved as a player and coach, Grant moved into administrative, development and senior leadership roles at the Weston Creek Woden Dodgers club at a community level, and continues to bring the basketball magic to people at home in his NBL1 commentary role for the Canberra Gunners.

Grant is heavily invested in the development of basketball facilities in the ACT. He actively advocates for new basketball facilities and improvements with our local politicians and works closely with our community partners to develop grant applications that will improve existing facilities. 

Grant collaborates effectively with other clubs to provide support where possible and to work together in improving our competitions. Grant’s dedication and continuing commitment to basketball in the ACT basketball is life long and consistent.

Paul Clowry’s consistent and sustained involvement in basketball in the ACT as player and coach from Juniors through to National Representative competition has undoubtedly contributed to the successful playing landscape of today. 

Paul has consistently demonstrated values founded in integrity and a love for the sport of basketball, with a 35-year involvement with BACT as a player, coach, and administrator.

A junior and representative player in the late 1980s and early 1990’s, Paul played for the Canberra Gunners in 1992 and 1993, and again in 1998, was the local Premier 1 division MVP in 1997, and coached ACT junior representative sides through the 1990s.

Paul’s coaching involvement has also impacted many local clubs, including Marist College, Tuggeranong Southern Cross, Tuggeranong Vikings, Daramalan, and Weston Creek Woden, returning to the ACT junior representative scene in 2024 and 2025.

Tony Plunkett has dedicated much of his life to basketball in the ACT.

During an involvement that began as a junior player with the West Belconnen Warriors in the mid-1970’s right through to a recent coaching stint with the UC Capitals in the WNBL, Tony has spent thousands and thousands of hours helping players to become better basketballers, and better people.

Tony’s involvement with the Wests club as both coach and administrator can be counted with decades, as can his representative coaching at representative, Academy, and Canberra Gunners and Nationals levels, as well as his time with the Capitals.

In all this time, Tony has earned every appointment along the way, working his way up from assistant to head coach, and from lower levels to the pinnacle of men’s basketball in the ACT.

Tony’s success as a coach has come on the back of his high standards he has asked of his players, and which he was adhered to himself as a passionate and long-serving member of the ACT basketball community.