Four "imports" not listed on the Wollongong Hawks roster have played a special role in the club's quest for NBL supremacy.Nelly Coenraad, Kara Gruber, Becky Behrendorff and Danielle Quintero are the US-born wives of Hawks players Tim Coenraad, Dave Gruber, Tim Behrendorff and Rhys Martin.The Grubers, both American, hit it off after meeting at the University of Iowa, while Australian-born Martin, Coenraad and Behrendorff also met their future wives at college after heading overseas on basketball scholarships.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks The all-American wives quartet occupies the same spot at Wollongong home games, cheering and applauding the Hawks and providing moral support for their respective partners with a subtle wave or smile."She's definitely my rock and if she wasn't out here with me I couldn't do it, simple as that," Gruber said of Cara."I played out here in the ABA for a couple of years without her and it just wasn't the same. We did the distance thing with 10,000 miles between us. It makes you or breaks you and if you get through that you can get through anything."The Grubers married four years ago and Kara has enjoyed putting her masters degree to use in Australia, securing work as a speech and language pathologist in Wollongong."She's had a good time trying to get over the Aussie accents," the Hawks' hard-working forward said."The kids she works with go home with American accents and the parents raise an eyebrow, but she loves it and she's made some good friends."Having her out here with me, it's just been a great experience for both of us."Martin was smitten the moment he laid eyes on Venezuelan-born Danielle."We met in our freshman year in American history class," Wollongong's starting playmaker said."She sat down the front, I sat at the very back. About two weeks in, I met her and then she was down the back with me. I sucked her in and she was gone. It was all on from then."Martin left college after two years and Danielle decided to move with her man to Australia with the blessing of her South American father and Czech-Irish mother.They married soon after and Martin believes he has the perfect catch."She took a pretty big risk coming out here, but it's paid off so far," he said."She's been able to live a pretty good life and hasn't really had to work too much. She wants to go back to school to become a midwife, and Wollongong uni does dual enrol so she'll probably do something like that."She loves to travel and had done a lot of travelling with her parents, so she wasn't afraid of the travel to Australia."
