Coaching staff

Joey Lovestrand
Joey Lovestrand joined ARU in 2024 as the Women’s Basketball Head Coach. As a former student-athlete, he has firsthand experience with the benefits of competitive sports for student wellbeing.

Joey previously spent three years coaching the University of Oxford women’s basketball team.

James Bamfield

Coach James Bamfield joined ARU in 2023. Bamfield boasts a strong pedigree in the sport having played in NBL leading both D3 and D2 in scoring and player coaching in D1.

As a coach he has over 25 years’ experience in running clubs and programmes, including as head coach the Welsh senior Men’s team.

He recently completed an MSc in Performance Coaching, is a candidate on the FECC (Fiba Europe Coaching Certificate) and has experience coaching across Europe at U19, U23 and senior levels, including the NBL, BUCS, EABL, ABL & AoC competitions.

“I’m passionate about impacting basketball in the UK and building something that can contribute to the player pathway here at ARU. We want our players to develop on and off the court and have a great experience of university basketball” said Bamfield.