Kings reign supreme on court
NEW Hull basketball team - the Kings - are hoping to build on their first year’s success.
A little over 12 months ago, three basketball enthusiasts came together with the aim of creating a new team that could grow and become a recognised club throughout the region.
Little did they know that success would bear fruit so quickly.
Due to the Covid pandemic competitive basketball was only being played at the highest level with local and regional leagues being paused, but that didn’t stop the Kings from starting to build their foundations.
Karl Buitendam, Chris Mills and Dave Mccoid were laying plans for when ‘return to play’ (Basketball England’s roadmap to the start up of basketball after the pandemic) allowed the team to start up.
The team secured two nights at two venues where the team could train and invited players to attend.
The trio said: “We were overwhelmed by the interest and had on average 25 players at our early training sessions. These numbers led to the team having to split the training sessions to allow experienced players and beginners to train and play without impacting each other’s development.”
The club prioritised a junior set-up and soon had over 40 children attend ing its early sessions ranging from six to 18.
When competitive basketball got the go ahead to recommence, Kings entered three teams into the Humber Basketball Association’s three leagues, an under-18s team and two open age teams in the Premier Division.
Kings entered the pre-season Yorkshire Cup which included teams from Hull, Grimsby, Scarborough and the Leeds area. In the first round they beat Spen Valley Vipers 58-31 and then beat Grimsby Gators
106-65 in the semi-final.
This victory secured a place in the final against another Hull team, Hull Starz, in Bradford and returned home with the trophy after winning 81-35.
The Humber league started in October and ran through to May 22 and saw mixed success for the three Kings teams.
The under-18s team, compromised of entirely new players, were in the Development league and finished with two wins and seven losses from their nine games.
Kings Green and Black were in the Premier Division, with the Black team finishing the season unbeaten and claiming the league title as well as winning the end-of-season play-offs.
The trio concluded: “We have entered the Yorkshire Cup for the upcoming season with the aim of defending the title and coming away with the trophy again.
“We hope to repeat our title win in the Humber Basketball league and have hopes that with the experience our under-18s team have gained, they will use that to improve their performances next season.
“As a club we want to build on our successes and grow the club further and continue our successful start, from our youth teams right through to our senior teams and hope to have more teams next season.”
If you are interested in joining Kings basketball team, regardless of age or level, the club want to hear from you. Find them on Facebook by searching ‘Kings Basketball Club’ or use the handle @Kingsbasketballhull.