{"id":2297,"date":"2017-09-11T17:13:21","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T17:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/rr2021\/?p=2297"},"modified":"2017-09-11T17:13:21","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T17:13:21","slug":"rockets-sign-australian-soukup-as-american-gill-arrives-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/rockets-sign-australian-soukup-as-american-gill-arrives-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets sign Australian Soukup as American Gill arrives in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Reading Rockets have made their fifth new signing ahead of the 2017-2018 campaign by adding Australian native Declan Soukup to their squad. The 6\u20193 combo guard has just finished playing in his home country with Dandenong Rangers in the Australian SEABL and is due to fly to the UK later this week to meet up with his new teammates. Prior to this, the British passport holder played four years in the NCAA in Divisions One and Two for Bryant University and Assumption Greyhounds respectively before returning to his home country. He averaged 11 points and 3.3 assists per game in his final year of college and will really bolster the Rockets backcourt with his ability to play the point guard position and as an excellent shooter.<\/p>\n

Rockets Head Coach Manuel Pe\u00f1a Garc\u00e9s is delighted to capture the signing of Soukup and feels the Australian will have an immediate impact on his team. The Spaniard said,<\/p>\n

[su_quote]We are really pleased to bring in Declan to our team and feel he is an excellent fit to the squad we already have. He has a very versatile game and is in great shape having only just finished his season back in Australia. We have felt for a while we need to bolster and strengthen the group and by adding Declan to the mix we have taken a great step in doing so.[\/su_quote]<\/p>\n

Rockets have also been buoyed by the news that American Tim Gill has finally got his visa sorted and will join his teammates early this week. Gill had been waiting for a number of weeks to secure his paperwork for his transfer to the UK and will finally be able to join the Berkshire outfit and make an impact.<\/p>\n

The Reading team has had a full on pre-season with games against Team USA Select, Fyllingen, and Essex Leopards and have undertaken all three match-ups with only 4 senior players.\"\" Under 19 Alex Drincic has made a good start to life in Division One and he and the rest of the team have been well supported by Under 18s I\u00f1igo Perez Baena and Adrian Nosa Castillo with Ali Sbai sustaining an early season ankle injury and Joel Keeble unavailable for the first few weeks. Rockets Chairman Gary Johnson is looking forward to seeing all the pieces of the puzzle finally coming together over the next week or so but may also be looking to add one more player to the mix. He said,<\/p>\n

[su_quote]We have had a really good pre-season in terms of training and games and the guys that are in have done well so far. There is still a lot of work to do and that will be the challenge for the coaching staff over the next couple of weeks as the squad comes together and we possibly look to add one more player to the fold. Our focus has been to have a deeper squad than last season as well as maintaining our philosophy of promoting and developing young talent. We feel we have definitely taken some positive steps in this off-season and now we are looking forward to really competing and working hard during the season.[\/su_quote]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Rockets have made their fifth new signing ahead of the 2017-2018 campaign by adding Australian native Declan Soukup to their squad. The 6\u20193 combo guard has just finished playing in his home country with Dandenong Rangers in the Australian SEABL and is due to fly to the UK later this week to meet up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":[],"_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"spay_email":""},"categories":[3,4,6],"tags":[162,152,143,142],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/PressRelease-Soukup.png?fit=705%2C296&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdDaI5-B3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3960,"url":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/aussie-dixon-becomes-rockets-fourth-signing-ahead-of-2019-2020-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":2297,"position":0},"title":"Aussie Dixon becomes Rockets third signing ahead of 2019-2020 season","date":"21\/08\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Australian Ben Dixon has become Reading Rockets latest acquisition ahead of the 2019-2020 campaign and is the club\u2019s third new signing. The 26-year-old joins from Australian SEABL outfit Melbourne Tigers, a team well known to the Berkshire outfit through former Rockets Josh Wilcher and Declan Soukup. Dixon will be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Club Announcements"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Ben-Dixon.png?fit=700%2C298&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2314,"url":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/rockets-tip-off-season-with-national-trophy-double-header\/","url_meta":{"origin":2297,"position":1},"title":"Rockets tip-off season with National Trophy double-header","date":"21\/09\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading Rockets will start the 2017-2018 season with a double header weekend as they travel to Barking on Saturday afternoon to take on NBL Division One new-boys Kent Crusaders (4pm tip-off) before hosting Team Solent Kestrels on Sunday afternoon in their first home game of the campaign, 5pm tip-off at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Club Announcements"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Danny-Carter-in-action.png?fit=705%2C352&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2549,"url":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/rockets-look-to-continue-good-league-form\/","url_meta":{"origin":2297,"position":2},"title":"Rockets look to continue good league form","date":"23\/11\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading Rockets (5-1) will look to put the disappointment of their National Cup exit last Sunday behind them when they face another double header this weekend in NBL Division One. The Berkshire outfit will host league front-runners Loughborough Student Riders (5-1) on Saturday evening, 5pm tip-off at Bohunt School, before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mens Team"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_6881-news.png?fit=700%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3926,"url":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/richards-first-signing-for-new-look-rockets\/","url_meta":{"origin":2297,"position":3},"title":"Richards first signing for new look Rockets","date":"19\/08\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading Rockets have completed their first signing ahead of the 2019-2020 season with American guard Nicholas Richards putting pen to paper for the Berkshire outfit. The 6\u20194 24-year-old joins the Reading team having completed four years in college in the United States. Richards attended Kirkwood Community College in his\u00a0freshman and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Club Announcements"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Nicholas-Richards-1.png?fit=700%2C298&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2354,"url":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/rockets-looking-to-bounce-back-against-thunder\/","url_meta":{"origin":2297,"position":4},"title":"Rockets looking to bounce back against Thunder","date":"28\/09\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading Rockets (0-1) will be looking to record their first win of the campaign when they travel to the south coast on Saturday evening (7.30pm tip-off) to take on Worthing Thunder (0-1) in their second National Trophy game of the season. The Reading team had a bizarre start to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Club Announcements"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_3722.png?fit=542%2C287&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9775,"url":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/captain-australia-returns-for-a-3rd-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":2297,"position":5},"title":"Captain Australia returns for a 3rd season","date":"25\/08\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Ben Dixon returns this year for a third season in Reading, hoping to build on his previous campaigns to produce a winning season for the Rockets. At 28 years old, the Australian national has established himself as a key part of the roster and team culture with the Rockets and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Club Announcements"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DSC04206-X4.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2297"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2306,"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions\/2306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingrockets.co.uk\/rr2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}