Welcome back to all pupils, at BCS or other local schools and colleges and even those take a gap year before Uni.
The 2019/20 season is already looking really exciting as we welcome to good solid, keen players and recruit more and more from the surrounding area. Over the summer Coach Wood was elected to the Dorset Basketball Committee, meaning we have more influence in how the league and cup is run. And the biggest change this year is that the DBA League will be split into 2 divisions, as the DBA expands and welcomes 5 new teams. That means that we have been placed in Div2, so we will not face off the big teams, unless we win our playoffs and cups, so no big losses of 60/70 to the Bandits and Tigers, and we will only face those teams who finished in the bottom half of the league last year:
1) Southbourne Donkeys - Our old local rivals. Last year beat them at home, lost away with young players.
2) Bridport Evolution. - Won at home, lost away. Could be strong, but have lost J.Robertson, who scored 50% of their points last season!
3) New Milton Blackhawks - Whooped them at home by 20+, but a weakened side travelled to theirs.
4) BG Suns - New team, who recently beat the Donkeys by 1pt in the summer league.
5) Bournemouth University Development - remember Vito's 4pt play to win?? Obviously they will have new players but they also have a Div1 team in the Tigers, so this will be their weaker players. Coach Sutep Craig has left the area and moved to Bristol to coach there.
6) Weymouth Raiders - Weymouth's younger players, many who play U18, and should be a good match. We beat them in previous years before they moved to a different league. But now they are back. Again a Div 1 team, Bandits, means this is their weaker team.
I see everyone beating each other and it being really close. Evolution could still work with Jason, and rely on Craig and Chris, but they will be weaker, for sure. The Uni team is an unknown, but if they are the 3rd team for the uni, they should be beatable. But I really reckon we could be challenging for wins every week and even to finish at the top! Im really excited.
As for us, Im buzzing to get working! We lost a few players, in Benno and Abner, but a few of our new Y11s will be growing into the squad, and Ive met some of the new players, Vuk and Juan, and hear good things buzzing around the boarding house about others still out there!