Hoop Dreams

Bristol Academy Flyers Basketball Club, currently among England’s best, will soon be among Britain’s best, says Simon Fry.
These are exceedingly exciting times for the Flyers.
Based at the WISE Basketball Arena at South Gloucestershire & Stroud College, Stoke Gifford, the Flyers have come a long way since the then Filton College started its basketball programme in 2003.
The club has recently been brought into the stable of Bristol Sport Ltd, the sporting organisation backed by Bristol City’s majority shareholder Stephen Lansdown. While Bristols footballing Reds remain some way off appearing in the Premiership, their basketball-playing equivalents are looking forward to taking their place in the British Basketball League, the sports elite level, from the start of the 2014/15 season.
Before then, hopes are high for a successful 2013/14 campaign in the National Trophy, National Cup and Vcars.co.uk Division One, English basketballs top flight.
Flyers new season starts on Thursday September 12, with their traditional curtain-raiser against Team USA Select from Charlotte, North Carolina.
The visitors bring with them many fascinating back stories. Team USA Select is the brainchild of general manager Sean Kilmartin and fellow former Appalachian State University team-mate David Lawrence. The pair played in Europe in the 1980s, and made a beer buddy promise while drinking beside the Thames, in sight of Big Ben, to give others a similar opportunity by organising exposure tours for unsigned players.
One such beneficiary was seven-foot-tall Adam Simons, who signed for the Flyers in 2007 and was interviewed for Venue shortly after. Davis Bowne similarly impressed for the Select outfit and played for the Flyers between 2009-2012.
Last year Coach Kilmartin and charges took in nine European countries in one month and this September promises to be every bit as barnstorming, with players leaving the touring squad once they sign with their new club.
Rookies from establishments such as Furman University South Carolina, Tuskegee University Alabama and West Virginia Wesleyan College hope to avoid being on the plane home by impressing scouts in places such as Paris, Prague and Helsinki.
For their part the Flyers will be keen to chart their young guns progress. 17-year-olds Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye and Tamas Okros have returned from a successful European Championship with the England U18s, while the USA game will also see the debut of the Flyers new Lithuanian signing Aistis Keliauskas, a UWE student coming to Bristol after playing professionally in Italy.