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Please see below Newsletter #1

Welcome Back!!

The 2012/13 Season is now underway and after a successful first year, Russell Hoops are planning this season to be full of new projects and ideas!

It’s been a good first year: we had over 200 players attend our events;  we held 10 camps; hosted the “Russell Hoops Academy” on a weekly basis and also developed 19 players to club level, all having signed for National League basketball for the upcoming season.

Because of this fantastic successful first year, we pushed our organization into re-launching “Ware Rebels” who, as you know, were very successful.  Due to the re-launch, this will mean that we are able to offer players exit routes to play National League basketball.

Our one-to-one sessions are a huge success!   We have helped seven players to not only improve their skill set and train at an ‘elite’ level but to return to their respective clubs and make a huge impact on their team – much at the surprise of their coaches!  We are hoping that more players will want to take advantage of our one-to-one sessions, we feel these do make a huge difference on a player’s development.

The Russell Hoops Community Program is becoming as strong as ever.  We now deliver basketball in several local Primary and Secondary Schools -  creating an interest in the sport  and develop future basketball players!

Russell Hoops “Beginners Academy Session” will launch on the 28^th September which is ideal for those who are new to the game and wish to give it a try.  The session will be run from 16:00 to 17:00 every Friday and is aimed at 7 to 11 year olds.  Ben Russell, Head Coach will run and coach these sessions.  The fee for each session is £5 on a ‘pay and play’ weekly basis.  Please help us out by spreading the word and inviting younger brothers/ sisters and anyone you think that might be interested!

Russell Hoops have very high ambitions for their future.   This year we plan to host camps and clinics throughout all school holidays as well as running our three tier Academy System on a Friday night.  We are also planning to host tournaments for U14, U15, and U16 during the year and launch a coaching program for players, parents and volunteers – watch this space!

Exciting times ahead for Russell Hoops – we continue to develop and grow our reputation within the Hertfordshire area,  Our players are about to embark on their very first National League basketball journey!  Our coaching staff at Russell Hoops will be keeping a very close eye on our guys playing club basketball for the very first time!

Lastly, we would like to thank all of you for supporting us in our first year.  We hope we can continue to meet your demands for the up-coming year making it very successful for each and every one of us.

Please see a list of upcoming events ( Leaflets will be with you by the end of the week)

October Half Term Camp - 29th–31st October 9am-3pm. OPEN TO ALL

October Shooting Clinic – 1st November 9am-3pm. *INVITE ONLY

October Ball Handling Clinic – 2nd November 9am- 1pm. OPEN TO ALL

We look forward to seeing you all at future events.

With kind regards,

Russell Hoops latest recognition is to acknowledge 14 year old Dominic Hearn.

Dominic was first introduced to the sport by his P.E Teachers at Richard Hale School in Year 7. After playing for his school throughout the year, he was chosen to take part in trials for the East Hertfordshire youth games team. Dominic was successful at the trials, and was a huge part of the success East Herts had coming 1^st in the Herts Youth Games annual tournament.

Since the tournament, Dominic decided to take the sport more seriously by regularly attending the Russell Hoops Academy and taking advantage of the Russell Hoops camps that are run throughout every school holiday.

In addition to this, Dominic and his parents made the decision to sign up for the one to one sessions offered by Head Coach Ben Russell. During this time, Dom’s improvement was starting to be noticed by not only his parents and coaches but also by his teammates and opponent’s! After trailing out at several National league clubs, Dominic was approached by Ware Rebels Basketball club and is now in pre-season training with his first National league club team and very excited for the 2012/13 season.

Russell Hoops coaches are very pleased with his progress; his fantastic work ethic and great attitude combined will help him to be successful in his new chapter. We would like to congratulate Dom for all his achievements so far, and look forward to working with him at Russell Hoops and the Ware Rebels Basketball club for this season and for the future.

Ware Rebels was previously a very successful club that had junior teams at every age group as well as a Division 1 men’s team but unfortunately folded leaving the East Herts area with very little basketball action, especially at club level.

Russell Hoops founder (Ben Russell) and other ex-Ware Rebels’ players have decided to re-launch the Ware Rebels Basketball Club commencing for the 2012/13 season.  They are starting with a National League Division 4 Men’s Team and a U15 National League Junior Team.

The club development plan is to have junior club teams at every age group within four years, with the focus of progressing the junior players into their men’s team.  Also, the team committee at Ware Rebels have very ambitious plans; the Russell Hoops’ organisation plan to re-build the successful club that it was five years ago.

Russell Hoops is an organisation that goes into the community, local schools and colleges to coach.  They look for the more serious players and invite them to their academy sessions where they develop the player’s skill set and understanding of the game which will put them in a better position to be recruited for club basketball.

With this new partnership now in place, Russell Hoops can provide talented players with a proffesional club, a great team of coaches and its support staff off the court.

Ware Rebels have already signed head coaches for the up-coming season for both teams: Thomas Guerrero taking the role for the Division 4 Men’s Team and Ben Russell as head coach for the U15 Team.  They have also brought in a “strength and conditioning” coach, a nutritionist, two physiotherapists and a psychologist coach to help their athletes off the court.

Russell Hoops’ head coach, Ben Russell, had this to say:

“I am delighted that we have managed to not only re-launch Ware Rebels Basketball Club, they are also linked-in with Russell Hoops, thus securing the youth develoment in the community that is being targeted by them.  Russell Hoops and Ware Rebels are best-placed with fantastic coaching and support staff, allowing them to carry themselves forward in the most proffesional way.”

Ware Rebels will be announcing very shortly when they are hosting their open try-outs for the u15 and Senior National League teams.

 The Rebels are back!

Russell Hoops had their first games on Sunday 26th February in a three-way tournament against Harlow Hawks Red and the Harlow Black team.

Russell Hoops won their first match with a comfortable 67-26 win OverHawks Red team. Andrew Klippel led the way with 19 points, with HamadeeTaousi and Dominic Hearn adding 14 and 12 points respectively.

Their second game was a hard-fight against the Harlow Black team. The majority of the game remained close but patience prevailed as Russell Hoops’ decision-making with the offence, as well as smart and intense defense, proved to be the difference. Russell Hoops stretched their lead from 4 points up, with 8 minutes to go in the 4th, to a 12 point lead with 4 minutes left in the game. Some excellent teamwork and fantastic offensive display by Hamadee Taousi rounded-up the game with Russell Hoops winning 57-47 – WINNING THE TOURNAMENT! Hamadee Taousi top-scored with 25 points, with Andrew Klippel having another great performance with 9 points and 3 assists.

Russell Hoops Head Coach, Ben Russell, had this to say:

“The boys really made me proud this weekend. We had some players who have never played a basketball game outside of school before and to beat two club teams is a fantastic achievement. Everything we have been focusing on in practice was transferred into the game and that’s all Ican ask for. We did have a bit of a slow start in the first few minutesof the first game but that was to be expected – it all comes down to experience.”

Overall, the boys did a great job!

You can find the online survey here. 

Thank you in advance for helping us improve the services we provide at Russell Hoops.

Both players battled through a trial made up of 60 talented players and were chosen for a final squad of 20 which will be made up into ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams.

Daniel Keyser will be representing in the U13 category, with Hamadee Taousi playing for the U15 squad.

Daniel and Hamadee are both regular players at the Russell Hoops Academy’ sessions and its camps.  It is great to see these boys being rewarded for all their hard work.

Head Coach at Russell Hoops, Ben Russell, had this to say:

“I am really pleased to hear the fantastic news that Dan and Hamadee have made the County Team.  They have a tremendous work ethic and have been a pleasure to coach.  Nobody deserves it more than these two boys.  They still have a lot of work to do to put them in a good position to make the ‘A’ team but ‘hard work’ is something these boys are used to.”

Russell Hoops would like to take this opportunity to wish Dan and Hamadee the best of luck in their preparation and for the final tournament in May.

For more information and to follow the progress of Daniel and Hamadee please visit the Herts Basketball Association at www.hertsbasketball.co.uk

We are pleased to announce that Rikki Broadmore has joined our coaching team.

Coach Broadmore is Assistant Coach for the U16 Girls National Team who have just been promoted to Division A.  This Summer, finishing 2^nd in the European Championships, losing out to Germany by three points.

Rikki is also Assistant Coach for the GB Institute for Basketball at Barking Abbey Basketball academy, coaching their Division 1 team, “London Leopards“.

He has a vast amount of experience and we are very excited to have him on board.

Rikki had this to say about joining up with Russell Hoops:

“I am very excited to be working with Russell hoops, I hope my experience will help out the players and I will do my very best to support them and develop them into the best they can be.”

Rikki will be assisting in the Russell Hoops camps and their academy sessions.