NAPIER MAIL:CLINTON LLEWELLYN.

The long and the short of it is, this is a case of out with the old and in with the new at Basketball Hawke’s Bay.

After nine years as general manager, Paul Trass heads into semi-retirement at the end of this week, to be replaced officially on August 3 by former Manawatu Jets national basketball league player, Chris Hart, who comes into the role from the world of recruitment.

But all jokes aside about the relative heights and ages of the pair, Hart said he was excited about the challenges ahead in his ‘‘dream role’’.

‘‘Basketball is a sport that I love and one that am extremely passionate about. The opportunity to work in a role that develops the game and its presence within the region is a dream role in my eyes,’’ said the 33-year-old, who played age group representative basketball for Manawatu.

Hart ‘‘had a degree of success’’ playing as 203 centimetre-tall forward for the Jets in the NBL from 2001 to 2004, as the side reached two consecutive NBL semi-finals for the first time in years, in 2002 and 2003.

The Massey University graduate stopped playing after the 2004 season to focus on his career and moved to London, and spent the next six years working in Europe in the world of corporate recruitment before relocating back to Auckland.

‘‘Sick of Auckland traffic’’, Hart and wife Lauren moved to Napier last year to be closer to family and friends, and he currently plays basketball in the Hawke’s Bay open men’s grade on a Wednesday night.

As he prepared to take over the reins of the region’s biggest indoor sports code, which has around 3500 registered players, Hart said his immediate goals were to continue to grow player numbers, increase commercial partnerships and address the current capacity challenges the sport faced.

‘‘In order to continue to grow the game in the Hawke’s Bay we need more space. A big focus of my role will be working with council and commercial partners around opportunities to increase capacity.

We have some exciting projects in the pipeline that our organisation is determined to get implemented as soon as possible,’’ he said.

The perception of the sport was also a challenge, he said.

‘‘Basketball at a regional and national level is still perceived as a minor sport in New Zealand.

Globally, it is one of the world’s largest sports both from a viewing and participation perspective. So changing this perception on a local and national level is something we want to do.

‘‘The success of the Tall Blacks, Tall Ferns, Breakers, Steven Adams and age group teams is certainty helping this, but it also needs to be driven at a regional level.’’ Though he did not know him personally, Hart praised Trass for leaving the organisation in good heart and relatively good health.

‘‘Paul and his team have done a fantastic job growing the game.

Participant numbers across the region at all levels have grown year-on-year and the organisation is in the enviable position of now having capacity challenges,’’ he said.

Trass said problems with capacity had been due to the ‘‘amazing’’ growth of basketball at grassroots levels over the past eight years.

Annual team entries had risen from 100 to an expected 1000 in 2015, with player numbers predicted to soon hit the 4000-mark, which would rank it among the biggest sports in the Bay, Trass said.

But the growth of the sport had been a double-edged sword, with increased competition for venues and rising hire costs taking its toll on the organisation’s finances and staff.

‘‘Basketball Hawke’s Bay is in a reasonably sound financial position, through a series of small surpluses. It is really difficult financially when you have to pay over $100,000 annually, to hire facilities at between $250 and $650 a night.’’ ‘‘If we charged full recovery of costs for competitions, many of our players and teams would not be able to afford it and would not play,’’ said Trass, adding that the resulting financial pressures meant his already limited staff had been working ‘‘to or over capacity’’ in the past five years.

‘‘At times I wondered how we kept our sanity,’’ said Trass. The money pressures had also impacted on coaching.

‘‘Many teams are coached by a parent, because they have a car and are available. Our future challenge is make it easy for those coaches to learn a few basics that they can pass onto the players. We probably need to train as many as 200 over the next few years.’’ Though sad to be leaving, Trass said Hart was a ‘‘great choice’’ to add ‘‘new energy and drive’’ to take the organisation to the next level.

‘‘He is a past player, has wide management experience but does not come with any preconceived ideas, which will result in a fresh look at the operation.’’ Trass was proud of the success that some players had achieved in the sport, but also the community, during his time.

The other ‘‘really pleasing’’ achievement of his tenure, he said, had been the purchase of the old Wairere Bowling Club at Whitmore Park in Marewa in Napier.

This provided the organisation with its own home and a potential site to construct a basketball facility or outdoor courts.

Trass said he planned do some sports consultancy work in semiretirement and a bit of travel with wife, Ginny.

‘‘I will really miss basketball, but Ginny and I are looking forward to not having it dominate our lives all day and every day.’’