Hernando Planells


Hernando L. Planells is the Associate Head Coach of Duke Blue Devils women's basketball, the former assistant coach of the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League and former head coach of the Basketball Japan League team Ryukyu Golden Kings. Coach Hernando has coached at the high school, college and professional ranks. He has also choreographed basketball action in movies and commercials. Hernando was also the head coach of the Bouncers Slamball team.

Early life and family

Coach Hernando was born in Los Angeles to mother, Filipina Carmen Waga-Pangan from Cagayan de Oro City in the Southern Philippines and father, Hernando Sr. from Spain.
Hernando currently lives in Okinawa, Japan with his wife Carmel and their two children, Preston and Gabrielle.
Prior to scouting, Hernando founded which specialized in personal training and consulting services for athletes. Through his work with ELITE, Hernando trained and assisted over a hundred athletes reach their goal of gaining a college scholarship or playing professionally.

Coaching career

Planells has one of the most diverse backgrounds in basketball in both coaching and player development. He has coached at every level including a stint with the Maine Red Claws from 2010-11 of the NBA Development League. Planells has also spoken at coaching clinics and conducts player development camps all over the United States and in countries such as Japan, Philippines, Australia, Switzerland and Taiwan. In 2011, he founded ELITE athlete training, which specialized in personal training and consulting services for athletes. Through his work with ELITE, he trained and assisted over 100 athletes reach their goal of gaining a college scholarship or playing professionally.
From 2005-10, Planells served as a scout for Marty Blake, who is the Director of Scouting for the NBA. In his role as a scout, Planells put together scouting reports evaluating NBA prospects which were circulated to every NBA general manager and player personnel director.
In 2008, Planells returned to the United States after serving as head coach of the Ryukyu Golden Kings, an expansion team that is a part of the BJ League. For the 2006-07 season, he served as the head basketball coach for The Hollywood Fame, a team that participated in the American Basketball Association.
In 2005, Planells was named the first head coach of the Wyoming Golden Eagles out of the All-American Professional Basketball League. At that time, the 28-year-old was the youngest professional basketball coach in the country.
Coach Hernando is now in his second season a women's basketball assistant coach at Duke University.

Slamball coaching record

Head coaching record in Japan

Film credits

Planells' experience and background has allowed him to be a basketball choreographer for Solutions, on motion pictures. Coach Hernando choreographed the basketball scenes and trained the actors on movies and commercials.
In 2001 Coach "H" was named the head coach for the Bouncers on TV SPIKE TV's smash hit . His two-year run with the Bouncers saw them qualify for the playoffs, lead the league in scoring and being voted the most "exciting team in Slamball".
In 2004–2005 Coach "H" was hired to train the athletes of "Extreme Dodgeball", the highest rated show on the Game Show Network.
In 2006 Coach Hernando teamed up with Radiant Pictures and choreographed a Japanese basketball commercial featuring Japanese Basketball superstar Yuta Tabuse for .