Leicester Basketball team want the full house

Assistant coach, Michael Gambe; Captain, James Dyde; and Vice-Captain, Harry Wallett, tell The Tab about what this year might have in store for the University’s basketball team.

We caught up with them just after their intense training session on Saturday afternoon, where they have been putting in the hard work necessary to secure victory over DMU tonight in the first clash between the two teams this season. All three of the team members were keen to stress the importance of the fixture, saying: “We have to beat DMU on Wednesday. This season hasn’t been going great so far but beating DMU will give us the lift that we need.”

The team are in the same league as last year, after finishing mid-table. The Midlands 2B represents a challenge for the team as they play the likes of Anglia Ruskin, Oxford Brookes and Coventry. However, the natural rivals will always be DMU 1st’s who are currently sitting at the bottom of the table.

The Leicester team are hoping to secure a mid-table finish again this year, after losing core players at the end of last year. Harry said: “It was sad to see some of the key talent leave the club, as we had a good group of core players. Fortunately, we’ve managed to pick up some really decent freshers this year and the team is looking strong. We just need to improve the chemistry.”

Naturally, talking about the team and the fact they face DMU tonight led us on to talk about Varsity. “Last year we managed to secure victory in over-time, it was a bit of a nail-biter”, said Harry. “We’re quite lucky though, with DMU being in the same league as us we basically get 3 Varsity games. Each one is as big as the others, we want to win all of them”, said James. “Ultimately, we’re just looking for the W.”

It’s all well and good talking about the team and how they want to win every game, but what is the best part of the club? “The people”, said Michael. “The people that play Basketball in Leicester are real characters. They’re a lot of fun to be around and we’re a pretty tight-knit group.” Basketball isn’t a big sport in England, or indeed Britain, so the people that do play tend to know a lot about it. “People on the team will quite often watch the NBA games together. It just allows people to share what they love” said Harry.

“The socials are always good as well. We have them every few weeks and quite often run joint socials with the women’s team and other sports clubs as well as having our own.” added Harry. “Our next social is 80’s Basketball players, so there are going to be a lot of headbands and wigs in the O2.”

It seems like the club are all set, they just need to get the ball rolling (or should I say, bouncing) for this season and they’ll be on their way. If you fancy giving Basketball a go then make sure you go to the Danielle Brown Sports Centre on Thursday’s between 8pm and 10pm.

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