Saturday sees the start of the 2024/25 season for Hemel Storm as they begin their KitKing Trophy campaign with the visit of London Elite.
Following last year’s Playoff triumph, summer operations have been busy at Storm as Mark Clark and his team looked to build a roster capable of competing once more.
Sam Newman is back fresh from his MVP-winning Playoff final performance and Darien Nelson-Henry will continue his comeback from retirement with the Storm. Veron Eze and Matt Disu have also been retained alongside University of Hertfordshire students Ade Atiba and Jarvis Chater. Local boy Jack Burnell is back for his ninth senior season at the club and excitingly, Hakeem Sylla was this week confirmed as re-signed, although he will remain absent for now as he works his way back from injury.
American Tra’Michael Moton has switched Louisiana for Hemel, arriving for his first season of professional basketball and the second import spot is filled by Canadian Matt Ellis who spent last year playing in Portugal.
Other arrivals include British guard Joe Bielak, formerly of Loughborough Riders, and Trent Monkman - a Canadian-British guard. Both will also complete masters degrees with our partner University in Hertfordshire.
A number of new faces made their Storm debuts last Saturday in a friendly to SLB side Surrey ‘89ers’; an outing where the gelling of playing personnel was prioritised and a narrow defeat was of less importance.
The scoreline will, however, be more valuable to coach Mark Clark this week as the competitive action begins. The KitKing Trophy is into its third year, with Storm taking the title back in 2022/23 before they were dethroned last year. They will no doubt be determined to grasp the trophy back from the hands of Derby Trailblazers who won the competition last season.
Elite feature as one of three Division Two sides in the competition, after they were relegated in their first season in the top flight last time out. Storm were victorious in all three meetings between the pair last season, including in this competition where they ran out 81-70 winners.
Notably, the London side have signed former Storm man Romario Spence, returning to the StormDome for the first time on Saturday, and American Joshua Phillips who rose to fame on popular Netflix basketball documentary Last Chance U.
Storm won’t be taking the test of the recently relegated side lightly and know that any slip up could be costly in their hopes of advancing out of the group phase of the competition. With a fresh roster still adapting to a host of new faces, Clark will be looking for a positive start in what he hopes will be another winning season of basketball in Hemel.
For a chance to get a first look at this season’s squad, make sure you grab your tickets on the Fanbase platform using the link provided here.
Written by Callum Humphrey