Portsmouth Force unveil new head coach as it sets its sights on promotion
Portsmouth Force have announced their new head coach as they set their sights on promotion after consecutive years of narrowly missing out.
The basketball team have just fallen short in National Basketball League Division Three over the past three seasons, and with Daniel Fatomide stepping aside for work commitments, Craig Hughes has taken on the mantle.
It was a recruitment process that saw candidates applying from around the world, including coaches based in Australia and Spain. However, the answer was much closer to home as the club looks to implement a tried and tested strategy.
Rob Milner, Chairman of Portsmouth Force, said: “We had some really high quality individuals, both locally and in the near local area, who were up for coming on board. Craig's obviously coached with us for many years and been part of the club. He's also the lead coach here on our new BTEC, which kicks off at Portsmouth College in September.
“There was a standout team in our division last year who actually ended up winning the playoffs, and that was Crawley. Their model was based around the college programme, with the head coach involved in both to provide youth players a chance to play in Division Three. That model worked and it's tried and tested around the country.”
That led them to Craig who will be running the Elite Basketball course in Portsmouth. Rob said: “He's also a brilliant coach. He's got so much passion for basketball, so much passion for Portsmouth itself and the city. It just seemed the logical fit.
“When we sat down with Craig, Chris, co-chairman and I, when we walked away, we kind of had a little look at each other and thought, is the solution right under our noses?”
Craig is eager to get started and implement his free-flowing brand of basketball across the age groups to help establish a club culture.
Craig Hughes said: “I’m really excited to get started. We've had one training session already and had good meetings with the players, talking about last season and the expectations and plans for next season. That’s not just for the men's team but also looking at how the men's team can ripple down and affect our junior players as well and benefit them.”
Promotion is the aim with the club holding lofty ambitions to move up to the top league in the next five years. Craig said: “We've been knocking on the door for the last couple of years. I’ve already been going over some of the game tape from last year and I feel there is a few things that we can already implement.
“I like to play a free-flowing type of basketball, which I think the guys would really benefit from. It establishes a club culture and club style as well.”
There is always a lot of change in the summer when it comes to player availability and who will be staying for next summer. The club hold invite only trials every Monday for players that want to join the team and want to prove they can play at the national league level.
However, Craig believes there will be a strong core of players returning with more players wanting to join and play in front of 500 plus fans at the Ravelin Centre, something that is unique in division three.
He said: “We have got a decent core from last year still and then there are some new players who want to be here and are excited to actually come to Portsmouth and play. I feel like numbers-wise we're going to be really healthy.
“I pretty much all of the guys that are going to be staying here so there won’t need to be too many introductions and we can hit the running.”