{"id":582421,"date":"2026-04-03T07:39:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/582421\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T07:39:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:39:28","slug":"nikki-parker-becomes-tasmania-jewels-first-signing-for-their-wnbl-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/582421\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikki Parker becomes Tasmania Jewels\u2019 first signing for their WNBL debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tasmania Jewels have signed their first player as it prepares for its inaugural WNBL season, announcing local talent Nikki Parker as their foundation signing.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old guard from Tasmania\u2019s north-west coast will join the Jewels as a development player for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s basketball career began at age seven with Latrobe and Ulverstone, before joining the Tasmanian Future Development Program at 11.<\/p>\n

She started playing senior women\u2019s basketball at just 13 and has represented Tasmania nationally four times.<\/p>\n

\"\"Parker began her basketball career at age seven with Latrobe and Ulverstone<\/p>\n

Last year she was named in the Australian Women\u2019s Under-17 Sapphires Squad.<\/p>\n

Head Coach Claudia Brassard said signing a young Tasmanian first sent a clear message about the team\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

\"\"The six-foot guard currently plays for Northern Force in the NBL1 competition<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewels are a fiercely proud Tasmanian team and a team for every Tasmanian, so it is only fitting that our very first signing is local rising star Nikki Parker,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s born and raised on Tasmania\u2019s north west, a region that is famous for producing some of basketball\u2019s best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brassard said Parker\u2019s potential and attitude was the major factor for the signing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has raw talent in spades, she\u2019s tough and gritty and plays both ends of the floor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The 17-year-old guard will join the Jewels as a development player<\/p>\n

Parker said the news was a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love playing basketball, it\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever dreamed of doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so lucky that I was sitting down when I got the call to say I was on the team, I was so shocked and excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six-foot guard currently plays for Northern Force in the NBL1.<\/p>\n

\"\"The signing reflects the team\u2019s commitment to developing local Tasmanian talent<\/p>\n

Assistant General Manager Kayla Steindl said the team would consist of 10 rostered players and three development players.<\/p>\n

The Jewels will begin their season in October, splitting home games between Hobart\u2019s MyState Bank Arena and Launceston\u2019s Silverdome.<\/p>\n

Membership details for the club will be announced soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tasmania Jewels have signed their first player as it prepares for its inaugural WNBL season, announcing local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-582421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}