Due to the club's website being
hacked recently we have decided to blog our ladies team until we are able to
get back onto the website.
Here is a short history of our team and how the club has grown. The ladies team has been a part
of the club for around 10 years and has been in various forms including local
league and national league versions. In the past 4 years the club
has been involved in England Basketball's South, South East and Midlands South West National Leagues.
In 2011-12 the club began the
roller coaster ride of creating a sustainable, enjoyable, competitive
environment which would develop junior and senior players as well as the club's
young coaches Steph Johnson and Josh Thorne. In the first season the club had 7
senior members including ex Div 1 player Becky Lear and two U18 players. With a very multinational feel including Romanian, Welsh, Hungarian and Irish
players, the team managed its best finish in National league coming 2nd, making the
Semi Finals of the National Trophy and going into the playoffs.
This was a really good
achievement for a new group and was the beginning of some really exciting times
for the ladies program. We were also able to run a local league squad which was
fantastic to develop new players to the club.
In 2012 the club added to the roster U17
Horizons players Eloise Sneddon, Freya and Rhiane Szmidt and Romanian Jnr
International, Denisa Molnar. Returning to the court for the club was Steph Johnson, Commonwealth
medalist Claire Maytham and ex junior and Welsh Senior Rachel Woods. Anca Massinova came on board after a handful of 30+ point games in local
league and the addition of local
league players allowed the club to now train with 10+ players and provided us
with the opportunity to begin training much earlier in the summer and prepare
for the season. Since day 1 we aimed to work towards being as close to a
performance pathway as we could. This meant adding in nutrition support,
strength and conditioning, pre, in and post season reviews and the addition of
analysis to support the development of individuals and the team.
The group took part in a much
more competitive league in 2012 with Westside, Solent and Oxford providing great
competition for us. This was what the group needed, an opportunity to play at
the 2nd highest level in the country against other clubs who were striving for
Division 1 opportunities. Each game was a dog fight and really highlighted our
strengths and weaknesses and showed how even the smallest mistake can mean a
loss.
One of the stand out moments was when Becky
Lear was crowned Division 2 player of the year and despite suffering some
tragic illness and injuries going into the playoffs. The group finished more
determined than ever to build and move on going into the 2013-14 season. Freya
Szmidt starting and scoring 39pts against Oaklands Academy and making the
England U18 and GB U20 3V3 squad was an outstanding achievement.
2013-14
We were able to make some big
steps towards establishing the performance environment we have been striving
for and one of the tallest groups we have every put together with 5 6ft +
players.
The club welcomed Rick Buckner
who would take the lead with the talented U18 squad and support Josh with the
Senior squad.
Many of the core group returned
including 3rd year players Rebecca Kingston, Becky Lear and Steph Johnson and
2nd year players Anca Massinova, Alex Stollery, Claire Maytham which which is a
big reason for the recent success of the program.
The club welcomed its first
import players Cat Lutz who played at Iona College and welcomed Melissa England who
hails from Southern Oregon University as the clubs first American ladies players. Spaniards Carla De Benavides Gabernet and Natacha Paris helped to round out the clubs
multi-national roster.
No comments:
Post a Comment