2 November: Lion's Men commence ABA pre-season campaign
The ABL men started their 2011 pre season campaign on Monday night and things looked a little different for Scott Whitmore’s group.
Notable absentees from 2010 were Zane Reeves and Gary Birmingham; both have headed back to the Woodville Warriors. The Lions will also tackle 2011 without American Import Wade Pidock and co-captain Ben Todd (retired).
Jacob Templeton has also decided to pursue other options by dedicating himself to a SANFL pre season with the hope of gaining AFL interest in the future. Although he will participate in as much of the pre season as possible while keeping sharp by playing under 23’s during the summer.
Assistant coach Jarrod Graves is also taking a break for the 2011 season to pursue other interests.
This leaves the lion’s a lot younger and hungrier after only 1 win in the 2010 season.
“No one was happy with the performance we put in last season, defensively we were the worst team in the league, and this will be the major focus point for us this pre season” coach Whitmore said.
“We have only one way to go and that’s up, after missing the playoffs by one game in 2009 we have a better understanding of what will make this group successful, we took our eyes of that a little bit last season”
Scott Whitmore with his assistant coach Dan Clausen has combined the under 23 div 1 men with the ABL men and will run them as one squad. Of the current crop of nine under 23’s seven have played ABL for Lions over the past 2 seasons, this gives the club a strong foundation for the next 4-5 years.
Off season recruitment has seen the Lion’s add five players to the entire squad with the under 23’s adding Jim Weston (Torrens Valley), Kyle Williams (season off) and Jordan Centenera (lions junior returning from Sturt).
On the senior side they have added Luke Frost (South Adelaide) and another American Import due in late December.
Matt Atkins and Dave Humphries are also returning from injury that kept them both out for most of 2010.
“We are very happy with our group on paper, it’s fantastic to have Dave and Mattress back, we missed them both last season” Whitmore said.
“We targeted 3 players in the off season and landed 2 of them, so we are really happy, Luke Frost has over 100 ABL games under his belt and leaves South as their captain, we are looking forward to what he brings at the defensive end, his work ethic and aggression will be a welcome addition to our group, we needed another leader to balance out the group”
“Our new American will join us on new years eve, unlike past years we will have him for 3 months to gel with the group, we really believe we not only have a quality player but a quality person, we put in a lot of research and have committed to him relatively early in the scheme of things, he is a 6”3 combo guard from a relatively small school, his style of play will really suit the group we have next season”
“We will also be looking for bigger seasons from second year Lions Dan Wilson and Tom Cioffi, we have different roles for these two guys to play this season and I think it will bring the best out of them both, big Daniel Carlin in the middle will add some excitement to the way we play as well”
The pre season schedule for the lions has all players committed to 3 sessions a week from Nov 1st with normal pre season trips to Port Pirie (Nov 20th) Goolwa Camp (Jan 7-9), Millicent Tournament (Feb 11-13) and Mildura Trial Games (March 12-14).
The team will also play as many trial games against other ABL teams as possible to prepare for 2011.
So from here its 50 on court sessions before the first game in March 2011, a hot summer ahead and plenty of defensive drills for the group to get back to being the sleeping giant it was in 2009.
2011 ABL Training Squad on Day one of preseason. (1/11/2010)
Returning
Matt Clarke, Daniel Wilson, Tom Cioffi, Scott Rose*, Ky Oliver*, Daniel Carlin*, Matt Bertram*, Matt Atkins*, Dave Humphries*, Scott Herriman*, Lachlan Parker*
Welcome
Luke Frost (South Adelaide), Jim Weston (Torrens Valley), Kyle Williams* (year off)
Jordan Centenera* (Sturt),
From a distance
Chris Clausen* (North Dakota University), Andrew Bolton* (NIACC)
Elsewhere
Zane Reeves (Woodville), Garry Birmingham (Woodville), Wade Pidock,
Ben Todd (Retired), Jacob Templeton (Football).
* All played junior basketball at Central District Basketball Club.
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