Inside: Interview with head coach of the Cheshire Phoenix, John Coffino.

Plus: Fixtures roundup and a look at the club’s new signings.

Thursday December 18, 2014

Photograph courtesy of Cheshire Phoenix.

As 2014 draws to a close, Caro-lynn Whorton talks to Chesh-

ire Phoenix head coach John Coffino about the season so far, the growth of British Basketball and what the future holds for the Chester based club.

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, in a cosy Starbucks near Chesh-ire Oaks, American coach John Coffino appears right at home. “This is my office. Half these people go to the game,” head coach of the Cheshire Phoenix says contently looking around the cafe. Coffino, who was appointed head coach in the summer, has settled quickly into the unfamiliar pace of the British game. This season was always going to be a transitional one for the Phoenix, ad-justing to the style of a new coach and several changes being made to the team roster. But with seven wins in a row under their belt, Phoe-nix currently sit in third place in the BBL (British Basketball League) and in a favourable position going into the New Year. (Table correct as of De-cember 16.)

For John, admitted-ly, coming to coach in the British League was not what he expected: “Actually no, it’s better. Yeah I underestimated it and that’s a credit to everybody, all the teams

and the players and the coaches, it’s a lot better than I thought but that’s ok, I’m adjusting. I mean I coached at the highest level so it’s just a little slower pace, less scoring but that’s ok.”

Something else the American coach is adapting to in the BBL is the officials: “I have a certain style and I’ve adjusted, I was a little rambunctious in the be-ginning with the officials and I toned it down a bit. I’ve got a couple of technical fouls; I’ve been behaving the last couple of games. You can’t win those battles”

Already this season, John Coffino has started to put his own stamp on the team, bringing in a wealth of players to the Phoenix setup. One of the players Coffino has signed is point guard Julius Hodge, who was a first round draft player for the Denver Nuggets. Hodge played 14 games for Denver and has also played basketball in Italy, Australia and France. The American spoke highly of his signing: “He’s like having anoth-er coach on the floor. I coached him in the NBA, we have a relation-ship. I mean coaching is player-relationship so it’s been easy.”

As well as big name signing Julius Hodge; the worlds’ tallest basketball player Paul Sturgess has also penned a deal with

Cheshire. The 7ft 8in Englishman, formerly of the Harlem Globetrot-ters will without doubt bring physical presence to Coffino’s new look side. The end of Novem-ber also saw Phoenix welcome Bulgarian combo-guard Simeon

Naydenov and former London Lions center Adrien Sturt.

There has been several changes made to the ros-ter which met Coffino when he first came to the club in the summer but he insists he was im-pressed with the talent.

Currently Coffino boasts a 10 man strong roster, the American coach out-lines the criteria he looks for in a player: “We like a certain type of player, a tough player, athletic, someone that’s smart, and team oriented. We’re just starting to gel, we’ve lost a couple of players, and we’ve gained a cou-ple so it’s been a season of transition so we’re still right in the middle of everything.”

Although the begin-ning of the season saw several controversial moderations to the team, it appears the previous uncertainty surrounding the changes is now out-weighed by the current form and collectiveness Cheshire now exudes.

The transition is run-ning somewhat smooth-ly so far for Coffino, who has had to adapt to the different rules and procedures regarding signing players in this league: “You get a cer-tain amount of moves; you’re only allowed three Americans per team.

You can add Americans, but you have to release an American. Then you’re allowed two Euro passport players per team then the rest can be British.”

The American is widely regarded as the most high profile coach in the BBL at the moment and his CV includes a wealth of experience coaching all age groups, in leagues around the world. His previous experience includes a spell in the prestigious NBA Devel-opment league, where he spent two years over-seeing the Albuquerque Thunderbirds. John recalls: “I coached in Qatar, in Africa. Trav-elling you know, seeing different parts of the world, different coaches and different styles.” Now residing in Chesh-ire, Coffino proudly de-clares his admiration for the region: “It’s just an incredible area; I mean that’s what I sell to the players, is the area and the people.”

Explaining how he got into coaching, John recollects: “I was playing in the States, in New York, in a community school which is a two year school, I was a little older and I could have played one more year and the coach says ‘your destined to be a coach’ and he was a legend, he’s in five hall of fames, he got me started. And the rest is history. He said ‘I’m going to see you on TV someday’ and he did. I was just very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, and when my ship came in I jumped on it because it’s my passion.”

The New Yorker is first to admit his strengths lie in coaching rather than playing bas-ketball: “Oh yeah, yeah, I wasn’t very talented. Coaching, once you get bit by the coaching bug, you don’t want to stop, it’s really addicting.”

Coffino was certain in his answer when asked who Phoenix’s biggest rivals were: “Manchester, because its close, but we haven’t played them yet. I went Saturday to watch them.” With the particu-lar approaches Coffino displays in his coaching methods, it is not hard to see why the Ameri-can is respected among his peers, players and fans. He emphasises the importance of observing teams before playing them: “You’ve got to, you

have to prepare you can’t just go in there without you know, being familiar with your enemy.”

Any battle Cheshire Phoenix are faced with, is met equally with intense training prepa-rations: “We train about four times a week, twice a day. We’ll do the David Lloyd gym, in the morn-ing, with weights and cardio and stretching and then some shooting. Then at night we will practice at 6pm until 8pm.”

Speaking on the sea-son so far, John details the early exit from the BBL Cup: “We got elim-inated from the cup, but there is still the Trophy and the Championship. I was disappointed, you know we should have won that; we should be in the semi-finals. We were short of a couple of guys and we were play-ing back to back games but it’s ok, we make no excuses.”

He proceeds to men-tion the often difficult task of acquiring fans within the area with lo-cal football club Chester FC enjoying a popular following: “We’re trying to win them over,” John reveals with a smirk.

John admits he has followed the majority and sampled the football Chester has to offer: “I’ve been to a couple of their games, it’s fun. I want to go to a ‘Man U’ game though. I don’t know

anything but Rooney, that’s all I know!” The American’s knowledge of football is admittedly limited but his eagerness to immerse himself in this country’s national sport is another sign of his fondness of the area.

Speaking about his plans for the rest of the day, John casually reveals he also has an interview with the Guardian: “I have a meeting with two of my players, I have an interview with the National newspaper, The Guardian?” He asks with a blank face: “I’ve never heard of them.” Whether the American coach has heard of The Guard-ian or not, a national newspaper covering basketball is surely a sign that the sport is growing in this country. Basket-ball is often an invisible sport in the national newspapers, lost among football, rugby and cricket. But interviews with those involved in the game like Coffino, will undoubtedly make people more aware of the sport: “There’s no question, a lot of people just don’t know.”

Coffino admits he can already see a change in British Basketball from when he first arrived in the summer, and that the sport is only increasing in popularity: “Yeah definitely, Basketball is going to grow in this country, if everybody gets on the same page, it’s going to grow. Just get their heads together and put some money up and give them the sup-

port, I think they have a chance.”

Although there may still be a way to go be-fore basketball is consid-ered a mainstream sport in Britain, Cheshire Phoenix are developing a setup which makes them almost unrecog-nisable from their previ-ous life as the struggling ‘Cheshire Jets’ team, who were pulled out of the BBL just a few seasons

ago, because of financial difficulties.

The clichéd saying: ‘If you build it, they will come’ rings true for the aspirations Chesh-ire Phoenix have for the club in the coming years. 2015 will see the club will move to a bigger stadium, built in Elsmere Port to hold around 14-1500 fans. Their current home in the Northgate Arena has the capacity for around 750 fans. John explains: “It (Northgate Arena) is a tough place to play if you’re a visiting team. It’s our last year there then we move to the new arena. It’s very nice, state of the art.”

The Cheshire Phoe-nix fans who will fill the new stadium, are highly

regarded and appreci-ated by the club coach: “We’ve got the best fans in the country, not even a question about it. I mean these fans are so loyal. The game Sunday (referring to the home game against Durham, Phoenix won the game 83-79), it was just a mad house, it really was. I am just so glad we won for the fans.”

One thing that has

“We’ve got the best fans in the country, not even a question about it. I mean these fans are so loyal.” John Coffino

Cheshire Phoenix head coach, John Coffino. Photograph courtesy of Ben Taylor.

Cheshire Phoenix fans out in force at the Northgate Arena. Photograph courtesy of Ben Taylor.

“Basketball is going to grow in this country, if everybody gets on the same page, it’s going to grow.” John Coffino

Cheshire Phoenix team photo 2014/2015. Photograph courtesy of Ben Taylor.

Chester Chronicle. Cheshire Phoenix Special. Page.3. Chester Chronicle. Cheshire Phoenix Special. Page.2.

always remained central to the Cheshire Phoenix is the close-knit com-munity who run the club and the renowned family oriented feel of the organisation. Coffino stresses the importance of including children in the club: “Yeah I mean the whole idea, to get the community and the children out here. The hard part is getting them to come to a game; once they come they’re going to be hooked.”

Testament to the club’s community spirit is the work they do with young people in the local area, using basketball as a tool for health initiatives. The coach explains: “John Lavery is in charge of the community stuff and he does an incred-

fixture against Plymouth University Raiders. But if their current run in the league is anything to go by, they have every chance of progressing in the competition.

John Coffino cur-rently holds a two-year contract with Cheshire Phoenix, and his ten-ure is already proving a notable appointment for the club. The American’s introduction into the British League is also a favourable step for the development of bas-ketball in this country. 2015 promises to be an exciting year for Chesh-ire Phoenix, with their move to a new, bigger stadium and thrilling prospects in both the league and the BBL Trophy.

ible job getting out to the schools and getting the kids to come to the games. ‘Hoops4Health,’ is a great programme where they go to the schools and they talk to them about healthy eat-ing, and they talk a little bit about basketball. We hit about 60 schools.”

Cheshire Phoenix face a difficult test in the BBL Trophy round of 16 on January 18 with an away

Coffino guides Cheshire to winning ways

John Coffino. Image courtesy of Ben Taylor.

Fixtures roundup Chester Chronicle. Cheshire Phoenix Special. Page.4.

November and De-cember have been

two standout months for Cheshire Phoenix. The side picked up an impressive eight wins out of the nine games they have played so far in the period, including a moral boosting away 82-99 win over local ri-vals Manchester Giants.

This remarkable run of seven wins in a row is bettered only by cur-rent league leaders Esh Group Eagles Newcastle. As a result of their form, Phoenix currently sit in third place in the BBL Championship.

In the sides most recent game against Worcester Wolves, they ran out 97-86 win-ners. Cheshire have displayed an excellent team dynamic in their

recent form, and indi-vidual performances from two of Cheshire’s players, Taylor King and Demond Watt are particularly impressive. Both players boast a notable 19.9 points per game average.

Cheshire’s last game before Christmas is a challenging home tie

against top end title con-tenders London Lions. Cheshire will be hoping for revenge over the Lions, after the 87-71 de-feat in early November.

Several teams in the league have games in hand going into the New Year, due to BBL cup commitments, and therefore every fix-

succession against Shef-field Sharks on January 9 and January 25.

John Coffino’s side stand every chance of progressing into the next round of the BBL Trophy when they play Plym-

Meet the new players

Cheshire Phoenix celebrate a home win against Bristol. Photograph courtesy of Ben Taylor.

ture will be crucial for Cheshire as the Champi-onship table is extremely close between the top teams.

In the New Year, Cheshire will be hoping to pick up points when they play struggling side Leeds Force on January 23. Phoenix will also face two games in quick

In November, John Coffino welcomed three new signings to the Cheshire

Phoenix roster, here we find out more infor-mation about the new players.

Paul SturgessCheshire Phoenix’s sign-ing of 7ft 8in centre, Paul Sturgess has brought a wealth of media atten-tion to the club. Official-ly the world’s tallest bas-ketball player, Phoenix fans will certainly notice when Sturgess takes to the court.

Born in Loughbor-ough, Sturgess signed for the Phoenix on Novem-ber 20. The 27-year-old acquired the ironic nickname ‘Tiny’ whilst playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.

He was signed by the Globetrotters in 2011 after playing college basketball in America. Sturgess was then draft-ed by NBA D-league side Springfield Armour, before moving on to the Texas Legends for the remainder of the 2013 season.

Paul Sturgess wears size 20 shoes and can

hold the rim of a bas-ketball net comfortably at standing height. The addition of the English-man into Coffino’s side will undoubtedly take Phoenix to new heights.

outh University Raiders on January 18. Cheshire have already played and won Plymouth 104-98 in the league in November.

All statistics and league standings correct as of 16/12/2014.

Demond Watt in action against Glasgow. Photo-graph courtesy of Ben Taylor.

Simeon Naydenov

Adrien Sturt

Another of the new additions to the Phoe-nix roster is Bulgarian combo-guard Simeon Naydenov. Phoenix can expect an experienced player in the 33-year-old, who has won cham-pionships with many of his previous clubs.

The Bulgarian played

28-year-old Adrian Sturt is another of Coffino’s signings following the departure of Devan Bai-ley. The center will bring physical presence and strength to the roster and has title winning ex-perience under his belt.

The Australian-British player already boasts BBL experience after his stint with rivals London Lions. The London club recently released Sturt after he played only a handful of games for the club this season.

6ft 10in Sturt will be

hoping for more game time at Phoenix, and with Coffino’s tight 10 man roster now begin-ning to gel, rotation will surely only benefit Cheshire approaching a packed fixtures schedule in the New Year.

Notably, Sturt won the NBL title in his first season with Australian club Melbourne Tigers and represented the GB under-23 side.

title success in Ameri-ca, Egypt, Bulgaria and Sweden and has played basketball in countries including Italy, France and Israel amongst others.

Naydenov, who stands at 6ft 6in, represented his native Bulgarian side Lukoil Academic Sofia until recently when he left the club as the two parties struggled to agree terms.

The combo-guard has a notable reputation for his three-point shooting and if he can bring this to Cheshire, he will no doubt be a fan favourite in no time at all.

college basketball for the University of Louisville until 2004. He’s had

Adrien Sturt. Photo-graph courtacy of Ben Taylor

Paul Sturgess. Photograph courtesy of Ben Taylor.

Simeon Naydenov. Photograph courtesy of Ben Taylor