Reading Rockets will travel to the South Coast this weekend to take on rivals Worthing Thunder in the National Trophy as they commence their 2016/2017 campaign in a competition in which they finished runners-up last term. Rockets have played a number of friendlies in the lead up to the start of the season with Head Coach Manuel Peña Garcés putting the finishing touches to his team as they look to bring some silverware back to Berkshire after narrowly missing out in all four competitions in 2016. Saturday’s match-up at the ‘Thunderdome’ is both teams’ first competitive game and having played each other four times last season, splitting the series two apiece, it promises to be a feisty encounter with both organisations looking to get off to a good start.
Rockets’ Director of Coaching Matt Johnson has been heavily involved in the recruitment process alongside Coach Peña Garcés in the off-season and is looking forward to seeing the new Rockets in action. He said,
[su_quote]It has been a busy off-season putting a new team together after last season and we are really pleased with what we have. Keeping Danny (Carter) and Joel (Keeble) was important, and adding Ali (Sbai), Ibu (Jassey Demba), and Fidel (Gomez de Enterria Lopez) provides us with some exciting young talent, something which is key to our organisation in terms of development. I believe we have brought in some great guys this year. Dani Arcau and Juan Valerio join us from Spain as a big and a point guard and we feel we have two great Americans in Craig Ponder and Chris Hooper. Paulin Jardim competes the line up and adding Alan Keane to the coaching staff has been a real bonus too. We like the group a lot; much work is to be done but the early signs are encouraging and we wait to see how this unfolds over the course of the season.[/su_quote]
Rockets Head Coach Manuel Peña Garcés, who take the reins for his fourth season at the Berkshire club, is pleased with his team’s pre-season to date but knows more games and practices are what’s needed during the next few weeks in order to really get his team firing and mounting a challenge in all four of the competitions. The Spaniard commented,
[su_quote]I am really looking forward to playing our first game of the new season on Saturday with this new, young group of players and it will be great to see where we are at. I have been pleased with our pre-season in terms of practices and the games we have played – having not had a full squad until last week and only playing three friendly games is the only thing I would have changed but we are happy with where we are at in the knowledge it is a long season and there is much work for us to do.[/su_quote]
[su_quote]In terms of Saturday’s game and in the following weeks, we will be concentrating on ourselves mostly but scouting and preparation has always been important to us and something we will continue to take pride in as we approach each match-up. Worthing is always a difficult opponent to play against because they play good, tough basketball and always have talent on their roster. Tom Ward has been an ever present player over the last few years and is really key to their success; he shoots the ball well, can control the game, and is tough to play against. They have signed an American big in Lyonall Gaines and have brought back some other key players to their group so we know they will be prepared and also wanting to start off with a win. But we are also ready and hungry, and very much looking forward to getting back to competitive basketball this weekend.[/su_quote]
Rockets go into Saturday’s first game of the season with a fully fit squad with no fewer than five players making their competitive debut for the Berkshire outfit. Dani Arcau, Juan Valerio, Craig Ponder, Chris Hooper, and Paulin Jardim will pull on a Reading vest for the first time as the the Reading Rockets enter their twentieth season in the National League having won 16 trophies during this time.
To keep up to date with all the latest news and information, visit the club’s website www.readingrockets.co.uk and for live game day updates follow them on Twitter @rocketsreading.