Family legacy: Famous Ellis coaching tree expands

• Cody Ellis played five seasons in the NBL with the Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks
• His dad, Mike Ellis, is a two-time NBL champion with the Perth Wildcats and coached the team in the 2003-04 season
• Mike Ellis' No.6 jersey is retired by the Wildcats

Cody Ellis grew up the son of a legendary Perth Wildcats player and coach, and now finds himself raising a soon-to-be teenage son and his eyes are wide open to
coaching himself after his recent under-14s experience.

Ellis grew up with basketball in his blood with his grandfather Gordon the 1983 coach of the Wildcats while his dad, Mike, was the club's first NBL captain, first championship-winning captain and then went on to later be a head coach.

That meant that he is now in a unique position where as his own NBL1 career will end at some point in the next one, two or three years at the Warwick Senators,
he is thinking of a coaching future and also helping his 12-year-old son, Chase, navigate carrying on that Ellis family name.

Ellis did have his own NBL career with 127 games across the Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks, and all along continued to play at the Senators since his Saint
Louis college career.

Initially, coaching was the last thing Ellis thought he would consider having seen what his dad went through both at the Wildcats and then for almost a decade
with the Senators in the SBL, which has now transformed into the NBL1 West.

However, as he weighs up what basketball involvement looks like beyond his own playing career, he likes the idea of being involved as a coach and recent
success with the Warwick under-14s teams has only enhanced that.

"I think it's something that I will absolutely step into and I've kinda dabbled in it a little bit so far," Ellis told basketball.com.au.

"I was able to coach and be assistant for the D-League boys for a couple of years as well, and then this year has really been my first time of being in a proper
coaching role and part of an actual coaching staff who had to come up with practice plans and game plans, and all that.

"It was a lot of fun and I did enjoy it even though it was a lot of hard work obviously, and just to be able to pass on the knowledge that I've learnt has been
pretty cool."

Where coaching might lead

When Ellis was initially adjusting to his NBL career ending prematurely following three seasons at the Hawks, he didn’t imagine ever wanting to be involved as a coach.

But he has become almost a playing assistant coach in recent seasons at the Senators, including on the 2025 team that reached the grand final under Andrew Cooper, and with the likes of Elijah Pepper, Todd Withers and Mitch Clarke on board.

He has also taken on a variety of assistant roles across the Senators, including with the under-14s team that took part in the recent National Championships, and
now he's open to seeing where coaching could lead.

"I'm just taking it as it goes at the moment and I'm not overly sure where exactly I want it to lead, and how much or how little I'll dive into it or what I'll do," Ellis
said.

"But it's certainly something that I'm open to and it would be hard to completely step away from the game once I am done playing, but once I do stop playing I do
see myself wanting to be part of the coaching staff of the NBL1 squad. Then wherever it takes me, I'd be happy to follow."

Success with Senators U14s team

Ellis did put his hand up to be part of the coaching staff on the Senators U14 boys team and he enjoyed the entire experience more than he imagined he might have initially.

To then see the team embrace the plans the coaches put in place so whole heartedly, he couldn’t have been prouder to see them win the WA title with a win over local rivals the Joondalup Wolves to book in a place at the National Championships.

"We finished third during the WABL season and we had some pretty good momentum going into playoffs, and the boys just hit a different gear once playoffs started," Ellis said.

"We had the hardest road to win where we had to play Lakeside in the first round who were just below us, and then we had to play Willetton in the semis who we'd struggled with during the season.

"Then we got Joondalup in the grand final and it was just a fun month of basketball to see the boys take that extra step and really lock in.

"We gave them the game plans for each game and they were super locked in on it, and it was just cool to see their evolution especially in that little patch which was unbelievable."

Performing well at National Championships

Those National Championships recently took place at Willetton Basketball Stadium and it was a best ever finish for a Warwick team when they ended up in ninth place.

While Ellis was proud of the way the team performed, he also liked the fact that everyone involved did feel as though they could have done better.

"It was a really cool week and finishing ninth saw us make club history, which was fantastic, but we were pretty upset with where we finished and I still think that we were a top two or three team in the whole competition," Ellis said.

"Unfortunately we drew the toughest draw in the crossovers and ended up playing North Adelaide who ended up losing in the grand final to get silver.

"We also drew the bronze medallists as well so it was a tough draw that we got, and we only lost by four and five points in two games that were probably our
worst of the week.

"It was fantastic to still make some club history and pretty cool that we also walked away disappointed with where we finished, but I give so much credit to
the boys with how they played.

"They were so much smaller than the other teams but that never seemed to matter once the ball went up."

Learning from dad's experiences

Ellis didn’t know anything different than growing up in a basketball family given what his grandfather had already done, and what his dad continued to do and had already done with his uncles heavily involved in the game too.

The Ellis family has a legacy like no other in WA basketball and while there were always good and bad aspects to that for Cody, it now gives him a unique perspective as he navigates his own future and also is raising a son who is starting to take basketball more seriously.

"I learned lots from dad obviously and he's one of those guys who has been thereand done everything, especially here in WA," Ellis said.

"It was one of those things where it was really hard for him to step away as well and just to be in and around a club and a team is something that is pretty special, and it gets in your blood.

"It's something that is hard to let go of especially if you've had it for basically your whole life, but what I did see was that the life of a head coach isn’t overly glorious.

"Being part of dad's journey as well and what he's been through, and all that, it certainly gives me a different perspective of the life as a coach whether it's an assistant or head coaches, and at the different levels.

"I know that it's one of those jobs too where you never know if your job is safe or not so you just have to roll with the punches, and it's very similar with being a player in that sense. But the fact that you are in and amongst the team and a club is what the most special part of it all is."

Fourth generation of Ellis family

At no point when Ellis was growing up was he forced into carrying on the family's basketball legacy.

He has made sure to be the same way with his own son Chase, along with wife Lauren who he met while at college in Saint Louis.

Chase has always been left to his own devices in terms of what sport he might like to play, if any, but he is now gravitating more and more to basketball including looking to carry on that Ellis family name by playing with the Warwick Senators.

Cody will just be happy to help Chase along the path in any way that he can without applying any degree of pressure whatsoever.

"I did learn lots on both sides of it obviously and he's 12 now and is trying out for his second WABL season, or State Champs as it is now," Ellis said.

"I've never pushed him into basketball at all and let him play anything he wanted, but he's come around to really being invested in basketball and that's all just come from him.

"He loves to watch it, loves to play 2K and loves everything about it but it can be a tough one especially here in Perth carrying that surname in a basketball
community.

"I experienced that myself but I think the biggest thing is that he understands that there is no pressure to be a fantastic player or anything.

"Whether he wants to pursue it or not, I just constantly check with him to make sure he is doing it because he wants to and I don’t want him to feel forced.

"And I was never forced either, both me and my brother never felt any pressure to play and we both just ended up wanting to do for so long.

"Chase might not end up as tall as me, he's probably on track to be about 6'3" so he'll be a bit of a different player to me, but his learning curve has been huge this past year with his first time in the WABL squad as a train-on," he added.

"It's just one of those things where as his dad you make sure that even if there's outside pressure, that he should only progress how he wants to do and just does
what he enjoys."