On the Prowl 6

Wildcat Dave

JUNE

We’re all feeling pretty good about the recent tournament. Games were good, the Wildcats competed with 2 very strong teams and we won over a lot of very important friends from the world of basketball.

As we look to keep the momentum going the next few weeks will be spent fine tuning plans for the coming season and in particular the finalising of the squads in the various divisions we have entered.

Preparation for the U15’s is already underway with the start of the Summer CVL at Ferryhill on Saturday 14th June. From what I saw we have about 20 potential National League players in this age group and team sessions will start pretty much straight away.

The emphasis here will be on technique, fundamentals and defence. The youngsters had plenty of this when they worked out at a session taking by Scottish National Coach Iain Maclean and his team during the International Tournament. I thought Iain and his players did a terrific job and feed back from parents certainly endorsed this view.

As the season approaches team offences will start to take shape and conditioning will be a  priority. I would expect Coach Danny Morgan to name his training group within the next couple of weeks. 
Training for the U18’s will start towards the end of June and Coach Paul Barrett will be contacting all his players to check that all exams are done and dusted before the programme gets underway.

One thing the boys in this squad will be looking forward to is the opportunity to work out with the senior squads on a Tuesday night at the new Freeman’s Quay facility in Durham which opens in August. The players in this group have already had a taste of what to expect when they had the thrill of working out with the English Universities team in a session taken by Coach Martin Ford.

What are the coaches looking for at this age. TIPS [technique, intelligence, personality and speed], or maybe the Eastern European philosophy of Height, Speed and Power – if you don’t have the height work on the speed and power. So boys, this is the time of year when the you should be working on your technique, particularly shooting and ball handling, hitting the roads or track and getting down to the Gym to work on your strength and conditioning.

Lots of work going on behind the scenes with the seniors and particularly in relation to recruiting. We need to resolve many issues, particularly working to the nursery club rules, whereby, 8 of the Seniors must be registered to Durham Wildcats and can’t drop down to play for Team Durham Wildcats.

Chris Haar played in the tournament, had limited minutes but deserves a shot at a spot in the Division 3 team. John Nikolidis did ok in the tournament but may have to return to Greece and is also very much tied into Craig Stamp’s situation.

We’d certainly like to have an extended look at John, he did very well in the tournament in most areas but needs to work on getting speed into his game. We’d also love to have Craig making a full commitment but have to remember he’s a full time student studying law.

Add to this that negotiations are ongoing with 5 players – 2 from last season and 3 new – and you can see that it’s going to be a more than interesting close season. We do, however, have a firm goal, and that is to be ready to go in the Leeds Met pre-season tournament on the 13th & 14th of September.

We are likely to be matched up against the hosts plus South Bank University [the reigning BUSA Champions] and University of Ulster one of Ireland’s top sides. We are also looking into a pre season tournament or series of games in Scotland – which reminds me I must pack my bags I’m off to Edinburgh to watch the European Championships C Division.

See you later in the month when, hopefully, I’ll have more news about the 4 players we’re tracking.