NEW Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers men's SBL coach Mark Heron has his team on a three-game winning run heading into Week 5 of the competition as the former 300-plus game player adjusts to life as a coach.

Heron had a decorated playing career at the Willetton Tigers, Goldfields Giants and Geraldton Buccaneers playing in two championships along the way, and now is in his first season in charge as head coach of Geraldton's men's SBL team.

Expectations are always high in Geraldton for the Buccaneers highlighted by Heron taking over as coach despite the team coming off a solid 2013 campaign where they finished in third position with an 18-8 record before losing in the quarter finals to eventual grand finalists Wanneroo.

Heron's coaching career began with a loss to the Rockingham Flames before his first win came against Kalamunda the next night.

Following an eight-point loss to the Joondalup Wolves back on March 22, the Buccaneers haven’t lost recording a 20-point win over the East Perth Eagles, 16-point win over the Perry Lakes and then last weekend a 20-point triumph over the South West Slammers.

Heron has been happy with the run of winning form, but knows they have to keep improving as the year rolls on.

"The first couple of weeks of my coaching career weren’t the greatest. I was pretty nervous and I suppose that is the life of a coach – when you are winning things are great but when you are losing you think about things way too much," Heron said.

"We have got on a bit of a roll the last couple of weeks and I'm pretty happy with the way things are going down. It's obviously a long season, though, and we just need to keep pushing to get better."

Heron is no stranger to being part of a team in a regional centre where much of the community takes an interest in the SBL club, but has found the public's interest in him now that he is a coach grow tenfold. And that everyone wants to share their thoughts on what they would do.

"It is a bit different as a coach. The support we get from our sponsors and people around town is fantastic and we would never take anything away from that, but it does make it a bit difficult for the players and certainly the coach sometimes," he said.

"As a player, you got asked a fair few questions on the street but as a coach it is just ridiculous the amount of people who want to talk about the team and their advice they like to offer. We take it for what it's worth, but we have our plans as a team and we think we are tracking along nicely."

The Buccaneers of 2014 has seen Carter Cook joined in the line-up by Bennie Lewis and veteran big man Odartey Blankson, and Heron is especially building his team's game plan around Blankson which only helps spread the floor for Lewis, Cook and Aaron Ralph.

"Odartey has been brilliant so far. He had a bit of a quieter game last week, though, so he's ready to go this week there's no doubt about that," Heron said.

"We wanted to bring in someone with a bit more experience and we spoke to a couple of agents, and Carter Cook's agent actually recommended him.

"We had a good look at him and he's a 32-year-old who has played a lot of places around the world, most recently South Korea, and he had a brilliant game for us that first night after only being in Geraldton for less than 24 hours. We were very happy when we saw him on the court."

Article by Chris Pike