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The Coalville Basketball Clubs AGM will be on Wednesday 24th May. The meeting will start at 8.00pm in the Forest Rock Public House.
The
1st Annual End of Season
Celebration for Coalville Basketball Club went fantastically
well with a great turnout from friends and family of the
Cougars players.
The Coalville Basketball 2006 tour
took place visiting the IBT2006 tournament in Eindhoven,
Holland. With about 40 teams competing at a very high
standard the Cougars did themselves proud with a 4-3 record.
This could of quite easily been a 6-1 and a position in the
quarter-finals had the team been a little more prepared for
the intensity of the game formats.
The Coalville Cougars finished the
2005/06 season with an unbeaten league record. Finishing
18-0 will certainly be a season the players will not forget
for a while.
During the run to the final Coalville
Cougars managed to beat several higher division teams in
convincing fashion in what turned out to be one of the best
seasons for the club so far. The game started out with a
quick basket for the Cougars followed by a three pointer
from Tomasz Sobiech. It was a tight first quarter with De
Montfort nailing a huge three on the buzzer to edge away at
23-17. The second quarter followed the same way with both
teams picking up 13 points to give the Griffins a 36-30 half
time lead.
The Coalville
Cougars game against Hind Leys B has been rescheduled for
Tuesday 25th April at 8.15pm.
The Coalville Basketball Club
are pleased to announce that the 1st Annual End of Season
Celebration is scheduled for the 20th May 2006 at 7pm. The
party will be a "Formal Dress" evening and will take place
in the Forest Suite at the Charnwood Arms.
Both past and present members
of Coalville Basketball Club are invited along with their
friends and family. The evening will include a meal, disco
and Basketball awards for the 2005/06 season.
The Coalville
Cougars dealt Groby B their first loss in two seasons of
Basketball to take themselves into the 2006 William Taylor
Cup Final. Cougars started strong, picking their way through
the Groby man-to-man defence for easy baskets. With
excellent transition play and strong defence the Cougars led
from start to finish to come out 91-36 victors.
The Coalville
Cougars have been invited to the 23rd Tantalus International
Basketball Tournament in Holland. The tournament is being
held by Basketball Club "Tantalus" on the 5th - 7th of May
2006 and will take place in Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
The Cougars will join around 40 other teams from across
Europe participating, meaning around 400 players taking over
Eindhoven for the weekend!
The Coalville Cougars picked up a
shock 75-57 win against Division 2 team, Fulhurst West in
the Quarter Finals of the William Taylor Cup. Although
Cougars never got firing on all cylinders and were fielding
a team with key players missing, the result never looked in
doubt. The Cougars were in control throughout with the first
basket of the contest being Fulhurst's only lead of the
game.
The Coalville Cougars game against the Royales has been rescheduled for Monday 13th February. Originally due to be played on the 7th of December as a home fixture, the game will now be played away at the Royales court in order to fit in the remainder of Coalville games.
The Coalville Cougars face the high
flying Division 2 team, Fulhurst West in the Quarter Finals
of the William Taylor Cup. The game is scheduled for the 7th
February away at Fulhurst.
After one of the best starts to the
season for a few years Coalville unfortunately don't top the
League table. Mainly due to only playing 6 league games the
Cougars sit in 4th position in the League. So how can
Cougars only have played 6 games? Well with the exception of
the Hind Leys game being cancelled, which was out of
everyone's control, it seems some teams have difficultly
with the concept of a League system and the last two games
were called off at the last minute.
With the start of the new season looming Coach Farmer has made a final last minute addition to the Cougars roster. It will be a return home for ex-Coalville player Richard Williams after spending a few years playing for the Swadlincote Scorpions. Coach, Steven Farmer said "I am very pleased to eventually have Richard on board. He made it known on a few occasions that his was interested in returning to Coalville but he needed to make a firm decision and I am now pleased to say that he has sorted it out". Richard is a good guard and will hit mid-range jump shots all night. The biggest asset he will bring to Coalville is his speed and hustle on defence. I'm sure he will cause problems for the opposition".
Coach Farmer has selected his final squad from the players attending summer training this year. "We have a good combination of both experience and young players", said Coach Farmer, "We also have a combination of Cougars playing from past seasons and new talent this year. Basically we should have a very competitive team whilst maintaining our more important social nature of the club". Two of the best additions this year will be the guard, Ben Herbert, and powerful forward Alex Goldsmith. Coach Farmer was very pleased "Both Ben and Alex came over to train with us over the summer. They immediately fitted in with the team and joined in with the social side of things. I'm very pleased to have them on board". Other new players for the 2005/06 season include Brett Katchick, better known to many as "Granby Panda", the Leicester Riders mascot. Also Paul Rutt returns to the club after a 10 year break and will join former team mates back from the 1993-95 seasons, Neil McHugh, Lee Alesbrook, Simon Hoult and Coach Steven Farmer.
Former Nottingham Knights Forward, Bruce Lauder, has signed at Coalville for the 2005/06 season. Bruce started playing Basketball at the University of Hull in 1998 where he went on to captain the 1st team and earn his University Colours. He also represented the University of Urbino in Italy during his spell over there. Having graduated in Business French and Italian, Bruce moved back to Nottingham and joined the Nottingham Hustlers Basketball team in NBL Division 3, where he quickly became one of the National League's most prolific rebounders. He was then one of only three members to be included in the revamped side as it changed its name to the Nottingham Knights, despite signings from the likes of Brighton Bears, Leicester Riders and Sheffield Sharks. During his time at the Knights Bruce got his nickname "Lord Air" obviously as a play on his surname but mainly due to his high leaping ability. Having won 5 national titles with the Knights and despite being offered a professional contract to continue playing EBL Division 1, Bruce has decided his loyalties now lie at Coalville. Bruce Lauder said "I am very pleased to be part of this rapidly growing organisation. The club is going places over the next few years and I wanted to be part of it. From a players point of view I am also very pleased to have the opportunity to play on the same team with players such as Simon Hoult. Simon is the shortest Forward in the League but somehow has the ability to score inside! With his passing ability I am sure to get to the basket regularly this season". The remainder of the team will be announced over the next week.
The 7' 2" England star, Andrew Betts has returned to his roots to support Coalville Basketball as the honorary President of the club. Originally from Ibstock, Coalville, Andy started his Basketball career at Coalville at the age of 15 and during his first season showed promise even in the early stages. It wasn't long before he was drawing attention from the Leicester Riders and made his BBL debut for Leicester in 1993. Since then Betts has came a long way. He went through a very successful college career at Long Beach State University in California. Whilst there he made a big impact on the NBA scouts eventually being drafted by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1998 NBA Draft. Andy then decided to spend his rookie season playing in Italy for Teamsystem Bologna helping them to the last four of the EuroLeague. So far in his career Andy has played in England, Spain, Greece, USA and Italy. Last season he even reached the final of the EuroLeague with Tau Cerámica making him the first English player to ever get to the final game. To top off his amazing professional career, which still has a long way to go, he also plays for England and is a major part of the squads future. Coalville Chairman, Lee Alesbrook, made the following comments "Being involved with Andy's development from an early age was satisfying and it is very inspiring to see how well he has done. We are all very honoured that Andy would come back to his roots to support the club that started it all for him".
Following his announcement as Head Coach, Steven Farmer has confirmed his first signing for the 2005/06 season. Ex-professional, Tomasz Sobiech from Poland has joined the Cougars after a short time training with the club this summer. Sobiech has spent time playing as a professional in the EBL, not to be confused with the English organisation of the same name but actually represents the Era Basket Liga in Poland. The 6' 4" guard will using his time with the Cougars to refine his game further and is aiming to get back to professional Basketball for the following season. More player announcements will follow shortly.
Steven Farmer has been announced as the Head Coach of both Coalville Basketball Club and the Coalville Cougars men's team. Steven actually started his role coaching over the summer months doing large amounts of coaching work in the community alongside Coalville Basketball Chairman Lee Alesbrook. He will be looking follow on from his success with the local junior teams with a successful campaign in the 2005/06 season with the Cougars. Farmer, who will start to select his team very shortly, said "This year will be particularly hard to select a team as I want to choose some of the new talent available to complement our existing squad. I will try to maintain some consistency with the experienced players already at the club but I have so many options too choose from. Its not going to be easy".
Schlüter-Systems Ltd has stepped up to sponsor Coalville Cougars Team for their upcoming campaign. Schlüter-Systems is the number one worldwide supplier for accessories for use with ceramic and stone tiling installations, and have jumped at the opportunity to support a local team with a focus on future of the club by developing a youth imitative supported by a strong men's team. Having been in Coalville for the past 13 years Schlüter has grown up alongside Coalville Basketball with close links between members of the staff and the team. Schlüter-Systems is based in 13 countries with the head office being based in Iserlohn Germany; with offices in France, Turkey, Spain, Canada and New York, USA the cougars are hoping that some of the talent these countries have produced for the NBA will rub off on them for the upcoming seasons.
As usual Coalville Basketball Club will be open for training during the long summer break. Summer training normally involves players from all over Leicestershire (and beyond) playing games in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Over the last few
years we had players such as England International Yorick
Williams and BBL Champion Billy Singleton training at
Coalville during the summer. Summer Training
will be from July onwards (till the start of the 2005/06
season)
Coalville Cougars have finally been knocked out of the William Taylor Cup. Although this cup is usually for teams in higher divisions, the Cougars showed that they are more than capable of competing at this level. Cougars started the competition in fine form with a big 69-45 win over Division 3 team, Gateway B. Cougars then continued with a quarter final win against Leicester University before finally slipping up in a very close game against Division 2 team, Moat Warriors. Playing the Warriors was a very good experience and showed that the Cougars can compete at this high level with the game only being decided in the final minute. Also the Warriors went on the win the competition with a 79-36 win over Central Sports.
Coalville Cougars have gained sponsorship for the 2005/06 season from the highly impressive Plant Process Design company. PPD are a multi-tasking multi-national company specializing in the design, co-ordination and support of manufacturing facilities. Predominantly in the food and healthcare industries. PPD are one of the many companies interested in supporting Coalville Basketball and we should hopefully announce another major sponsor before the first tip-off of the season.
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22/05/2006