I wrote a blog entry late last year to kick off 2008…but as with the best laid plans I had to postpone it. Not much point if players haven’t been confirmed, courts are yet to be booked etc etc.
Getting past the rambling, I have been working on 2008 for months now. I have made some significant changes to the way I am approaching the new year, and the plans for the team. The good part is that we are building on a solid base, and this third year of my tenure I am hoping that things start coming together.
First news is signing of players. In my last blog for 2007 I mentioned the hard work of recruiting. Well it really is. Trying to retain, recruit and improve is harder than I ever thought it would be as a junior coach. Anyway, the outcome is that we have retained a solid core and made a few key acquisitions. Perhaps the most important acquisition is thanks to the hard work of the East Perth board members, we are adding a second import to our lineup.
We had an SBL dinner on Friday 14th December at Hogs Breath in Northbridge. What can I say, I like a good steak J We had the president Fred Pesqua, SBL Director Matt Elliot, Assistant SBL Coach Geoff Warner and wife Anne, and Team Administrator Kelly Wigg present. Also present were players Jon Moon, John Taylor, Michael Jones and Andrew McLennan who signed contracts. Neil Purcell was unable to attend and signed his contract the next day.
We are currently finalising negotiations with our second import, Tim Kruge a 6’8” PF/C from Point Loma University. Tim was an All-American, received various NAIA awards and was his team MVP a number of years. He was injured his senior year, however he has toured with Athletes In Action through Canada in 2007 and is healthy and ready to go. Just as importantly he is a person of good character and we look forward to welcoming him to the team.
Also Jarrod Balcombe has returned to play for the Eagles in 2008. Jarrod was attending High School in New Jersey, however a number of issues arose and he is now back in Perth for the year (likely returning to the US for 2009). Whilst it is unfortunate that it didn’t work out for him, it is tremendous news for the SBL team to have a junior of Jarrod’s calibre back in the squad and will provide him with some valuable game experience.
So all up that forms a 7 man core for our 2008 campaign, one that I am very happy with.
A number of other juniors are also coming through into the SBL development program. Some individuals sessions were held during the months of October and November, and these juniors will be participating in the SBL pre-season. I am also talking to other players and those talks will be ongoing over the next few weeks to continue strengthening our lineup.
I have made some changes to our pre-season program from previous years. Each year I try to look at lessons learnt, and one of the things I believe that has held us back in previous years is starting the pre-season too early and also not getting on the court early enough.
In 2008 we commenced our pre-season program on Sunday, 6th January. This was a court session and whilst we will do some pure physical sessions, we will be doing a lot more court specific fitness activities. In prior seasons we have commenced with off-court fitness work such as Kings Park runs, Jacobs Ladder and beach runs and haven’t hit the court until as late as early February.
This year we will hit the court first thing, and occasionally insert an off-court session. Our on-court sessions will have large amounts of game specific fitness activities. I believe this will allow us to be more prepared for the season, and in particular our style of basketball.
So now it’s head first into the pre-season!
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