About Athlete Matter
You matter more than the scoreline.
Athlete Matter makes tools for your game and tools for your life: mindset and character programs for athletes aged 10 to 14 and the adults around them.
We start with Hoop Matter for basketball, with football, rugby and netball to follow.
Get the free Matters Trio
Our story
Why Hoop Matter came first
Sport has shaped Anika Brownās life, and basketball was one of many. She represented the region in touch football, swam at state championships in high school and played water polo and netball. On the basketball court she came through the NSW representative pathway, trained in the NSW Institute of Sport program and wore the number 6 for the Newcastle Hunters in what is now NBL1.
She also knows what a setback looks like. In her final year of school, with a basketball college scholarship lined up in the United States, a serious back injury changed the direction of her life.
Anika went on to train and work as an occupational therapist in Australia and the UK, then spent many years in commercial education and leadership at Johnson & Johnson, designing face-to-face and digital programs that help people and teams reach their potential.
Sport was teaching young athletes their game, but missing the chance to build the life skills that carry them well beyond it.
After a season coaching junior basketball, she launched Athlete Matter to close that gap: sport-specific toolkits for 10 to 14 year olds, the years when young people are walking away from sport. Basketball is the game she knows best, so Hoop Matter came first.
The tools reflect what Anika practises herself. Gratitude and mindfulness have long been part of how she looks after her own mental health, and they sit at the heart of the focus habits she teaches young players.
Today Anika coaches junior basketball, is a basketball parent of two and is based in Newcastle, NSW.
In her own words
Meet our founder.
Hear the Hoop Matter story from the person who built it.
Get the free Matters TrioWhat we stand for
Four values. Every session.
Focused
Purpose driven and intentional.
Supportive
We build each other up and create belonging.
Empowering
Helping athletes unlock their potential.
Progressive
Always improving and moving forward.
How the program is built
Ten weeks. Five pillars. One kit.
Each program runs for 10 weeks across five pillars: You, Mind, Team, Health and Future Matter. Players work through 18 Matter Minis with a printed journal, values and strengths cards and a planner, and rate themselves at the start and end.
Built with experts
Presented by people who know the game and the person.
Series are presented by a registered psychologist, a physiotherapist, coaches and other specialists.
Meet the expertsOur promise
We are new, and we will be honest about it.
We measure what players and parents tell us at the start and end of every program, and we will share what we learn when there is enough of it to mean something.
The Matter family
One program. Built for every sport.
Available now
Hoop Matter
Basketball
Coming 2027
Goal Matter
Football
Coming 2027
Boot Matter
Rugby league and union
Coming 2027/28
Netty Matter
Netball
Child safe by design
Our commitment to child safety
Everyone who works with Athlete Matter holds a valid Working With Children Check, signs our Code of Conduct and completes child safe training. We follow the NSW Child Safe Standards and have a clear pathway for raising concerns.
If a child is in immediate danger, call 000.
Raise a concernAthlete Matter Pty Ltd | ACN 701 891 698 | ABN 26 701 891 698 | Newcastle, NSW | Female founded, owned and led
Trading names: Athlete Matter, Hoop Matter, Netty Matter | [email protected]
Athlete Matter acknowledges the Awabakal and Worimi peoples, Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, and pays respect to Elders past and present.
