Liz Mills

Liz Mills is an Australian basketball coach who, since 2011, has coached elite level men's club and national basketball teams in Africa. Mills is the former head coach of Bangui Sporting Club for the 2023 Road to BAL (Basketball Africa League).

Mills is the first female basketball head coach to lead a men's national team at a FIBA continental championship, as well as the first-ever female head coach in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) after debuting in 2022. She is also the first female head coach of a men's club team in Morocco, and subsequently in North Africa and the Middle East.

Mills began her coaching career in Sydney, in 2002 working with junior boys and girls teams, as well as senior women's teams. Since 2011, Mills has been a head coach and assistant coach in Africa of senior men's club teams, national men's university teams and national men's teams.

In 2021, Mills was the head coach of the Kenyan men's national team, becoming the only woman in the world at that time in charge of a men's national team not only in basketball but in any major sport. When she coached Kenya at AfroBasket 2021, she became the first and only female head coach in a men's continental championship (Afrobasket) since the International Basketball Federation FIBA was founded in 1932.

Mills began her basketball coaching career in Sydney, Australia in 2002 whilst still in high school (Willoughby Girls High). She has coached junior boys and girls club teams, as well as representative girls teams for Northern Suburbs Basketball Association (NSBA), a representative club in North Sydney, Australia. Prior to relocating to Africa she coached a senior women's representative team for NSBA.

Whilst in Australia she completed an undergraduate degree in Sports Science and Sports Management (2008) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and in 2014 completed a Masters of Education in Sports Coaching at the University of Sydney (USYD).

Prior to 2011, Mills had never coached men. Mills started her coaching career in Africa in Zambia, where she was the head coach for Zambia's senior men's national league team Heroes Play United. Heroes went on to win the 2011/2012 national title, the first time the team had won in 8 years. She also coached the team the following season. She went on to win another national title in Zambia's senior men's league in 2015/2016 as head coach of team Matero Magic. Whilst coaching in Zambia, Mills was also named as head coach for the Zambian men's National University Team. This team competed in the 2012 CUCSA Zone VI University Games, finishing second and competed in All Africa University Games (FASU) later that year where the team finished third.

At the club level, Mills worked with the Rwandan division 1 men's club team Patriots BBC for the 2019 Basketball Africa League Qualifiers. She led the team to the East Division Qualification Title, with the team going undefeated in the two rounds of qualifiers. The team went on to compete in the 2021 Basketball Africa League.