It has been a tough but successful year for the UWE Jets’ Basketball teams with the Men’s 1st team having to bounce back after a lot of near misses in the 2014/15 season. However, they’ve finished the year on a high as runners up and winners in both the National Trophy and Western 1A respectively and here’s how they did it!
The Men’s 1st team started the season with uncertainty after a narrow loss to Plymouth in their first game but had a quick turn around to win against local rivals, Cardiff and Bristol. The winning continued with big performances both home and away thanks to key contributions from scholarship players, Mathias Seilund and Aistis Keliauskas.
They then went on to have successive wins the in the knockout rounds of the National Trophy against tough opponents from across the country, including Oxford Brookes. This meant that the Jets had pushed themselves into their second National Trophy Final, a very impressive feat! Despite falling short in the final, the loss only added fuel to the fire to broaden their aspirations of finishing top in the Western 1A.
Wins for both the Men’s 1st and 2nd teams meant that UWE Basketball won Varsity for the second year in a row which was the perfect building block for the Play-Offs.
UWE took advantage of their growing home crowd support and won in an impressive match against London South Bank. This meant that with a win over Essex, their goal of playing in the Premier Basketball league was just one game away! With a game packed full of drama, UWE showcased the progression of their players and won by 5 points. Watch snippets of the winning game.
President of UWE Basketball, Alex Dehaan, says that part of the Jets’ success is due to the coaching and staff support on the UWE performance programme; the team want to offer their thanks and look forward to continuing their success next season.
Guy Coles, UWE Jets’ coach, said, “it’s been a fantastic season for the club with the Men’s 1st team getting promoted to the BUCS Premier, it highlights the progression of the programme over the last couple of seasons and bodes well for next season”.
“The club can continue to grow and maintain their status at university sports highest level.”
Guy Coles
2015/16 Milestones
Men’s 1st – Western 1A Winners
Men’s 1st – Premier South Play-Off Winners
Men’s 1st – National Trophy Runners Up
Women’s 1st – 4th place finish in Western 1A
Men’s 2nd – 2nd place finish in Western 3A
Varsity Winners 2016
UWE Students’ Union Sports Club of the Year 2015/16
(consecutive winners)
Words provided by Alex Dehaan (UWE Basketball Captain) for UWE Sport blog.