Worthing Thunder Basketball Club is pleased to announce the return of three further members of the squad that competed in the club's first BBL campaign.
6'8" Latvian Power Forward and member of the BBL All Star team Janis Ivanovskis has signed for a third season with the Club. Having averaged 19.4 points and 10 rebounds a game last season, he adds greater depth at the Power Forward/Centre position following the arrival of Kadiri Richard and Pepe Zafirov for the coming season.
Club Operations Director Alan Sweetman-Hicks is happy that Janis has agreed terms for the 2009/10 season: "Janis was one of, if not the, strongest player in the BBL last season and was sixth top scorer and third highest rebounder in the league, despite playing out of position at Centre. With the arrival of Kadiri (Richard) and Pepe (Zafirov), there will be a lot less pressure on him to carry our offense inside and more opportunities for him to play at his favoured power forward position. It will be good to see how he links up with both of them."
6'3" James Brame will be playing his ninth consecutive season for the Thunder and his 13th in professional basketball overall, having made his debut as a 17 year old in 1997. Alan Sweetman-Hicks is glad that he is continuing his association with the Thunder for another season: "James has been a part of Worthing basketball so long now it is hard to believe he is still not even 30 yet! He is an unselfish player, always willing to fill whatever role he is asked to, whether it is starting point guard, which he did in our second league winning year after Steve Vear's departure, or guarding 6'8" power forwards as he did last year. With the more balanced squad we have this year, hopefully he can settle down into playing his more natural shooting guard/small forward role"
6'5" Daniel Midgley returns for his 4th season in Thunder colours having made 70 appearances for the club, the majority of which have been in a starting role. The Burgess Hill based forward made his way through the Sussex junior programme before going to the University of Maine in Machias before returning to Sussex with first the Brighton Bears and then the Thunder. The versatile forward averages 5.3 points and 3.1 rebounds a game for his Thunder career to date. Alan Sweetman-Hicks is pleased that the player known as "Midge" will be back on the south coast this season: "Midge was one of few locally produced players to start for any team in the BBL last season, which was testament to the hard work he puts into his basketball. He does lots of the little things well, and is a good 3 point shooter, which teams often don't pick up on until his hit 2 or 3 of them! He is a key member of the squad and I'm glad that he's returning to us."
These three join fellow returnee Daniel Hildreth in playing for Thunder this coming season. Together with new signings Kadiri Richard, Reggie Bratton and Pepe Zafirov, the recruitment is going well for the coming season.
Source: www.bbl.org.uk
