Phil Galvin
Technical Director of the NBA Basketball School, Dubai
Considered one of the US top skill development instructors, Galvin brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with him to the NBA Basketball School Dubai. He arrives in Dubai, having most recently served as the Technical Director of the NBA Basketball School in Turkey.
A native of the Bay Area in the United States, Galvin was an All-State performer in basketball at Antioch High School. He played collegiately at Santa Rosa Junior College before accepting a Division I scholarship to Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland. There he played for legendary coach Jim Phelan, one of college basketball’s all time win leaders. Galvin was selected to the Northeast Conference (NEC) All-Newcomer team and was named NEC player of the week three times.
After graduation, he began his coaching career at The University of San Francisco, where he spent five seasons as an assistant coach and was a part of the 1998 NCAA tournament team. Phil then spent 20 years working as the Basketball Director at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, which is known as one of the finest private athletic clubs in the world. There he created comprehensive basketball training programs that included camps, clinics, training, teams, as well as adult and youth leagues.
TYRELL HILLMAN
Coach at the NBA Basketball School, Dubai
Coach Tyrelle Hillman, known as Coach Ty has been passionate about basketball ever since he could walk, and began coaching 12 years ago with the Jr. Lakers. He coached the team to three undefeated seasons and was named coach of the year four times. Coach Ty has vast experience in the States, having led the Junior Varsity team at Malborough High School, in LA. In 2018, Coach Ty took up the role of Assistant Varsity Coach at Harvard Westlake who have a reputation of producing some of the most talented college athletes in all sports. He had the honor of assisting six time CIF coach of the year, Coach Melissa Hearlihy who is one of the most successful girls’ coaches in California history.
Cristina Chernysheva
Operations Director
Cristina is an Operations Director at Stryx Sports where she oversees the operations of team sports academies like Barça Academy Dubai and NBA Basketball School Dubai in terms of service quality, client relationships side, logistics, processes and procedures as well as overall performances. Cristina has joined Stryx in 2012 and started building her knowledge of working with the international brand like FC Barcelona ever since, which now also extends to the NBA project too. Cristina is really passionate about what she does and after a successful career at Stryx helping build Barça Academy Dubai, she is really keen to continue contributing to a success and growth of the NBA Basketball School as well, which offers young athletes in Dubai a chance to experience the highest quality basketball training powered by the NBA – the most significant name in the world of basketball.
Sarah Sutherland
Operations Manager
Sarah has worked in Dubai for the past 9 years, starting her career with establishing a swim school in 2011 before growing the company to include 2 other academies in 2014. Her sporting interest started as a swimmer at the age of 3 and then exploring different sports at school including netball, athletics and hockey. She took an avid interest in helping swimmers to be a better version of themselves and became a qualified swim teacher at the age of 16. Sarah was coaching her own competitive swim squad at 20 and has over 15 years of swimming teaching and coaching experience.
Having been part of the team for NBA Basketball School Camps in the UAE, Sarah is excited to now be working closely with the Technical Team to give parents and players a great experience. I’m a sportsman, and sometimes traumas make us take meds that we usually try to stay away from. A couple of weeks ago, I got knee trauma, which resulted in muscle spasms. My physician recommended taking low doses of valium to relieve the spasm and ease my condition. It’s my day 5 of treatment, and I feel much better now.