The Kent Crusaders National League men’s team that have started preparing for the new season and have announced that they’re bringing back the core of last years team.
The club have been able to sign contracts with several players of last year’s players enabling them to focus on basketball full time. This is a delight to Crusaders head coach Mads Olesen, as he sees a real possibility for improvement: “Damian Lyons has been working with the club for a couple of years now, and has really been an inspiration to a lot of players with his work ethic, coming in at 7 am five mornings a week to improve as a player. Last season several other players began to join him in the mornings, and we saw a definite improvement because of that. Now that we’re able to bring in more players who can schedule their commitments around morning practice, we’re looking to really develop these players”.
So far contracts have been finalised with Rikki Broadmore, the young guard who showed a lot of promise last season, and Sam Betts, a do-it-all forward with real scoring touch, and the club is still waiting for finalisation of another couple of contracts.
Olesen is also happy to see the return of a group of players who have been with the team since division 3. Veteran defensive specialist Jeff Wadey, explosive scorers Steve Findley and James Harris, captain Pete Ayling and last years team Most Valuable Player Mike Webber are all back for another go around. “The experience of these players is invaluable”, says Olesen, “They’ve been around the block and every one of them won games for us down the stretch last season”.
One of last season’s most exciting players, highflying big man JP Dimandja is also back in the Crusaders uniform. The improving young player excited crowds home and away with his high flying dunks and coach Olesen looks forward to another year of improvement for Dimandja: “JP came in as a very, very raw talent last season, but by the end of the year he was really one of our most important players. With his leaping ability and length he is really a force on defence, as he forces the opponents to change their shots”.
The Kent Crusaders have traditionally included a few junior or young talented players in the men’s practice squad. The Kent Crusaders and Canterbury High basketball academy and the Crusaders Under 18’s are supplying Charlie Thomas, Kalil Irwing, and Akin Lisk-Carew who all have trained with the Crusaders men before. Also in with the group of youngsters is first year men’s player Lewis Elgar, who played with Tenterden last season.
The Crusaders are looking to bring in a few new signings, most of these to be confirmed in the next few weeks, but Olesen is delighted to have his core of players from last year back. “In previous years we’ve had a lot of players come and go between seasons, and it has obviously affected our results as it’s taken the players a while to get to know each other. This year we made it a priority to bring back a core of the players who really started to gel at the end of last season, and we’re happy to say that we’ve achieved that goal. I’m looking forward to taking this group of players to new heights this year”.
The Crusaders have had to say goodbye to Rob Dagger, who’s off to London for university, Julian Naci who’s focusing on his last year of university, and Adam Browne who is joining the Army. Also the club is awaiting final confirmation on star player Robbie Parker and young big man Dan Garrad’s return.
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