New partnerships on agenda as Heat recap on successful year.
Published on: 3rd January 2012
Huddersfield Heat are looking to the short term and long term future in 2012 as further progress on and off the court is on the agenda following one of the most successful calendar years in the club’s history. Following their promotion from English Basketball League Division 4 at the end of the 2010-2011 season, the club has consolidated in midtable in Division 3 North of the EBL, currently with a 4 and 7 record, and with 5 of those defeats coming by a margin of 10 or less points.
General Manager and Player-Coach Eduardo Perez has a lot to reflect on positively after the year gone by:
“After winning Division 4 North in 2009-2010 and not being able to take promotion due to off court issues, it became imperative that we secured promotion last season with the current group of players. Even though we fell short of defending our title, to achieve effectively what was our second promotion in a row was a fantastic achievement for our club, in particular when you consider the resources of just about every other club in the league compared to ours. It was a fitting end to our second decade of existence. The challenge now becomes to continue to build on that progress and become an established Division 3 side this year and look to progress next season.”
It is also off the court where the Heat are putting in many hours of work to keep things progressing positively, with two major partnerships on the agenda which are close to completion. Once these are announced in January, the club will focus on two long term aims, the attraction of long term sponsors and the development of a dedicated basketball facility in the centre of Huddersfield.
“Off the court we continue to make big strides, and I feel strongly over the last year that more and more people are becoming aware of the fact that Huddersfield have a good basketball club, to go alongside the traditional sports the town has had, like football and rugby league. We are attracting more interest from local businesses in a variety of forms and we hope to formalise a few of these interest to give the club the injection of funds it needs to compete at a higher level. From a media point of view, we’ve obviously had increased coverage from the Examiner, which has been fantastic and very well received amongst our supporters, and we are also revamping our website and social media output to become more accessible. Long term, our goal for a dedicated centre is now finally in progress, and the club would certainly like to hear from other interested clubs if they would like to form part of a potential project. All in all, despite all the challenges, a very successful year gone by, and a very exciting one ahead!”
The Heat resume their league campaign on the 7th January when the travel to the Loughborough Riders, who are the current league leaders.
