BASKETBALL
High Hoops for Outlaws
By Ben Cornwell
The sport of basketball was created in 1891 by Canadian-American gym teacher, James Naismith, simply as a means of entertaining a gym class on a rainy day. Fast forward over 130 years and it’s a global sport of huge range and impact. But in 2019 there was no competitive Hastings team. South Coast Outlaws were formed then by Joel Hunt and his wife to fill the gap.
The Outlaws’ first season in the Sussex Basketball League was disrupted, like every other sport, by the Covid pandemic. But the team stuck together and waited for the opportunity to start up again under their new head coach Dave Barrett. They were finally able to complete their first full season last week, finishing 7th out of 12 in the league table, just below Battle rivals South East Tigers who defeated them 69-53 in the final match.
CREDIT: South Coast Outlaws
Despite winning five of their 11 matches, Joel believes that the Outlaws’ stand-out games this season have been their narrow losses against some of the top teams in the league. He thinks the team have shown that they can compete with the very best, and already has a top-four finish in his sights for next season.
“For a team that’s only a couple of years old, we are beating out really established Sussex basketball teams”, he enthuses. “We try to take it to every single team and we always play with heart. We even had some compliments from other teams about how together we are as a group.
CREDIT: South Coast Outlaws
“But you can only get so far on heart alone. Now we want to try and take our game to the next level and continue to grow together as a team.”
The numbers are certainly growing. They have a squad of 18 players – rather too many considering there’s a maximum of 12 on the team-sheet for each match with only five on the court at one time. That was after a summer trial which showed such high demand that several would-be players had to be turned away. If that showing is repeated this summer, Joel plans to create a second team, also to be entered into the Sussex Basketball league.
He doesn’t want to stop there though. Having been born and bred in Hastings, he is determined to help create a basketball legacy within the town. His plans include a South Coast Outlaws youth basketball programme, which would help develop the next generation of players. With his own experience of coaching and managing youth teams allied to the experiences of others in the local basketball community, that seems a realistic goal (make that hoop)
to aim at.
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