Horsham Hornets have appointed Scott Benbow as Men's Hornets coach and Rebecca McIntyre as Lady Hornets' coach for the upcoming CBL season.

Benbow has been heavily involved as a coach within the Horsham Basketball Association for decades, working under Owen Hughan as men's assistant coach in the early 2000s.

More recently he has coached junior representative teams, but hasn't been able to commit full time to the men's program because of work commitments.

Now working closer to home Benbow is keen to live his "lifelong goal" of being the Hornets men's head coach.

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"I've worked under Owen for so many years and I was able to do it with Timmy Pickert a couple of years ago so I was always hoping I'd get the chance," Benbow said.

"Now that I've moved back home full time, the time was right. I've got a real passion for it, so yeah it's gonna be great."

McIntyre has been involved with the Hornets as either a player or coach most of her life.

She was a star player for the Hornets and Victorian state teams and earlier this year she was an assistant coach for the Victorian Country under 18 women's side who won bronze at the National Championships.

Coaching the Lady Hornets had always been something that McIntyre had hoped to do.

"I've predominantly spent most of my time with the juniors but coming back from nationals, coaching at that level with the under 18 girls I've realised that I'm at that point now where I can step up to the seniors," McIntyre said.

McIntyre's father, the late Gary Bird, was also a past coach of the lady Hellcats (now Hornets).

"I was able to actually tell him before he passed away that I was gonna do it," McIntyre said. "That was something that was really special so it'll be something that I'll look forward to and I know will be a challenge but I welcome that."

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Although team squads aren't near being finalised yet both coaches believe they will have strong sides capable of matching it with the best.

As well as ensuring they are competitive, both Benbow and McIntyre insisted there will be strong focus on development among the two programs.

"The dream is and it's not officially announced yet is we're going to run our under 18s boys program hand in hand with the Hornets CBL Men's program and Bec's gonna do the same with the under 18 girls," Benbow said.

"So there'll be a real connect there, we'll be able to go back to the days of bringing development players through and they will play."

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