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#AllGirls Basketball Crawley

We are joining Basketball England and the ‘All Girls’ campaign with the launch of an all girls local league and a 14-18 Yr old Satellite Club. The aim is simple, we want to get more girls playing basketball!

Basketball England’s All Girls campaign is aimed at engaging more women and girls within our sport as fans, players, coaches, officials, volunteers and ambassadors.

The campaign has three main elements:  

  • To create awareness of opportunities for females to play, coach, officiate or volunteer and shine a spotlight on the female role models
  • To create a new All Girls Ambassador network
  • To create new opportunities and sustain existing basketball activity

All Girls League

On Friday 25th October we are launching a Year 7/8 Girls category in the Crawley Basketball League (CBL). This will be the only ‘All Girls’ local league in the South East region, and one of the only leagues Nationally. Any girl wishing to play basketball, novice or experienced, will need to sign up and will then be placed on a team to compete in the league. Teams are made up of only 6-7 players, allowing plenty of court time to develop and learn through play. There will be 2 games played every 3 Fridays. We’ will also be looking for all female Referee’s and table officials where possible for these fixtures.

If you are in Year 7 or 8 and interested in learning/playing in a friendly environment then sign up here: https://stormbasketballclub.com/product-category/crawley-basketball-league/cbl-u13-girls-year-7-8/

Year 7 & 8 Girls Training

Monday – 5pm-6.30pm @ The Holy Trinity School, £5

Tuesday – 4.45pm-6pm  @ Oriel High School, £4

Saturday – 9.30am-10.45am @ The Holy Trinity School, £5

14-18 Girls Satellite Club

In conjunction with K2 Crawley and ActiveSussex we are launching a 14-18 yr old (Yrs 9-13) Satellite Club session on Thursdays 5-6pm at K2, starting November 7th. The cost of the session is only £1 and its aimed at filling a gap of provision in Crawley.

Crawley Storm Head Coach Karl Youngman said; ‘we have previously not been able to offer Yr 9-13 girls an outlet to play regular, competitive basketball, so I’m glad we are now able to do so.
All Crawley secondary schools have been signed up to competing in the North District for the Yr 8/9 and 10/11 girls league, so if any players enjoy this experience, now have the opportunity to play outside of school.’ He added ‘this is a great session for late starters or those that want to learn the game, try something new, or even just keep fit. We’re hoping to see plenty of new faces’

The U13 girls CBL league and 14-18 Satellite club fill a much needed gap in the clubs female provision. We currently offer training and playing opportunities for girls from Reception through to Yr 6 via our mini basketball sessions and Battle of the Borough League. (https://stormbasketballclub.com/product-category/battle-of-the-borough/).
We also offer elite girls the opportunity to play National League via our U12 & U14 Regional & our U14 Premier National league teams. The ‘All Girls’ campaign will naturally aid us in bringing the girls programme in line with that of the boys

If you want to get involved in the All Girls campaign then get in touch, and make sure to use #AllGirls on any posts!

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Coaching Announcements

With Storm Basketball Club growing so quickly, we’ve been fortunate enough to secure 6 new coaches for the upcoming season. Ian Berry, Michael Kwentoh, Freddie Winton, Denny Burling, Keanu Kellett & Mark Chiang will all be joining our coaching ranks, further growing and developing our workforce across the Local League, National League and Foundation programmes.

Ian & Michael will be joining our Sussex Storm National League programme and come with a wealth of experience coaching at various levels across London. Having played NBL Division One last year for Hemel Storm, Ian is a product of Sussex basketball, having played for the programme when it was known as Brighton Bears, before moving to London & working with Greenhouse Sports. Michael runs Chiswick Gators, a successful local league programme operating in West London. He also has a wealth of National League coaching experience having previously helped NASSA to a Final Four appearance in 2013, while more recently working with Richmond Knights. In addition, Michael is a nationally respected referee who has officiated at the highest levels of National League.

Denny, Keanu & Freddie are Crawley basketball alumni, having come through the Local League, National League and Academy systems themselves, and they are now coming back to the club to give back to invest in the future. All are currently involved in the Summer Term of Battle of the Borough (BotB), and moving forwards the trio will be heavily involved in the Crawley Storm Local League programme, while Freddie will also be working for the Storm Basketball Foundation within schools in the area.

Mark has also been involved in the Summer Term of BotB as one of our new and developing coaches, with a background playing as a junior in Eastbourne.

National League Head Coach, Daniel Hildreth said: “This is great for our club, to not only increase the number of coaches in our programme, but also the quality that we can offer our kids. It is really encouraging that a number of the coaches are returning to give back to a club they once played for. We anticipate more coaching development opportunities coming soon.”

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Everyone Active Partnership

We are pleased to announce that we have a new partnership with Everyone Active that will see basketball coming back to K2 Crawley, one of the town’s and Sussex’s premier venue! The new partnership means that K2 Crawley will be used for Storm’s mid-week training sessions and games. More information to follow.

Karl Youngman said: “I’m really excited to get back into K2 Crawley. As Crawley Cagers we had some games there when it first opened, but we’ve never had anything permanent. It’s the best venue around and central for everyone in Crawley. Having recently hosted a Battle of the Borough event and our National League trials there already, it’s given us a taste of how great this partnership will be. Huge thank you to Dave Downey, Sports Development Manager for Everyone Active at K2 Crawley for his help making this happen!”

Dave said: “We are really proud and excited to be hosting basketball at K2 Crawley. Our aim is to encourage people to be active more often, whilst also developing talent pathways from grass roots through to elite athletes, and this partnership with Storm will deliver this perfectly.”