Martin Clarke leaves AIS for the Adelaide 36ers

Long serving Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) men's basketball head coach, Martin Clarke, has resigned from his current role to take up the head coaching position with National Basketball League team the Adelaide 36ers.

The former NBL championship winning player will start with the 36ers in late June.

Commenting on his move, Clarke explained "I'm extremely excited at being given this opportunity. Family is a big part of my life so I had to be sure that it was a good move also for them. Adelaide has the foundations for being a great program with the opportunity to build something that is going to be very successful."

Originally from Tasmania, Clarke was a scholarship holder at the AIS from 1985 to 1987 and National Junior Captain at the 1987 World Championships. Playing for the North Melbourne Giants from 1988 to 1992, Clarke won a NBL championship in 1989.

Clarke (pictured) joined the AIS basketball program as men's assistant coach in 1998, before taking over as head coach in 2003.

He added "I'm very grateful for every opportunity the AIS have given me. Being involved with the AIS for many years, allowed me to work with great young players ever day. It also helped me develop as an international level coach, first with junior Australian teams and in more recent years working with the senior national menâs program."

At the national level Clarke was head coach of the National Junior Men's Team, 2005-2009, and assistant coach with the gold medal winning team at the World Championships in Greece in 2003, as well as assistant coach with the Australian Senior National Menâs Program, 2009-2012.

AIS Director Professor Peter Fricker paid tribute to the outstanding contribution that Clarke has made to Institute and Australian junior and senior basketball programs, stating "Martin has been a loyal servant to basketball for a long period, especially to the Institute as both a player and coach, and weâd like to wish him well in his new role.

"Starting out as a scholarship player in the early days of the Institute and then returning to the program later in his career as a coach, Martin has made an incredible contribution to the AIS and played a key role in developing some of Australiaâs best young players.

"Testament to Martin's coaching talent is that he is so highly regarded in the United States for his ability to develop young players into outstanding senior basketballers."

The AIS Basketball program, which was established as one of the eight foundation sports at the Institute in 1981, is a world-class development program highly regarded around the world.