The Crusaders History

History of the

Coventry Crusaders

2008/09 Season

The 2008/2009 season was a step forward on court for the Coventry Crusaders, with the senior team finishing in its highest league position for three years. Five new signings being made throughout the season to help Coventry fight back through times of adversity by winning six out of their last ten league games, and finish a respectable 6^th out of 10, despite going on a ten game winless streak between November and January.

September would epitomise three quarters of the Crusaders’ season. A new signing would be made to improve the squad, yet performances on court weren’t yielding many points.

Three weeks before the start of the season, it emerged that former Crusaders player Sam Oatman would return for the forthcoming season after a year away from the game.

He was to play as a point guard, although assertions of him playing as more of a shooting guard were proven when he notched up 177 points in twelve games, an average of 14.7 points per game, before his season was cut short by injury in January.

Coventry began the season looking to avenge a record in a tournament that doesn’t favour them very well. In the past two seasons since its inception in 2006/2007, the National Trophy has conjured up just one win for the Crusaders out of a possible eight.

That record was stretched to one win in nine after a 77-94 National Trophy home defeat by Tees Valley Mohawks. Once again, a National Trophy campaign would fade away with no wins in the seven other matches. The opening weekend of the season was consigned with disappointment when the Crusaders were dumped out of the newly tried National Cup in the 1^st round up North by Mansfield Giants.

During October coach Scott Neely pounced on the opportunity to sign Worcester Wolves’ forward Ben Potts. The 23 year old from the BBL side would turn out to be one of the catches of the season for the Crusaders, as he went on to become the club’s top scorer for the season with 322 points.

Potts’s showed his ability during his National Trophy debut in the 76-58 defeat at Derby Trailblazers, where he top scored with 22 points.

The Under 18s redeemed themselves for their back to back losses in the previous month by winning two games in a row, Marcus Garvey’s lads won at Leicester Beauchamp Cannons 71-62, and carried the momentum from their first win into the Sports Centre to defeat Northants Moulton 99-98 the next day.

Disappointingly, the U18s would win only one more of their remaining eleven games, coincidentally coming against one of the teams they had already beaten, which was a 75-64 victory against Leicester at the Sports Centre.

The signing of another forward from Worcester Wolves at the end of a winless month gave cause for optimism.

Siman Stewart joined his Worcester counterpart Ben Potts during a time when the team suffered three consecutive losses, and the pedigree of the BBL shone through at the Sports Centre for Crusaders, as the pair notched a total of 460 points between them this season.

Coventry were at one point even denied the opportunity to notch up a confidence boosting first win, when their mini bus broke down for three hours on the way to Teesside, meaning that the Crusaders would have to wait another week until they recorded a 82-74 home victory over the Cardiff Celts at the start of November, their first league game of the season.

Coventry registered another impressive home win in mid November by beating Taunton Tigers 87-81 by managing to overturn a prolonged deficit. A flurry of 3’s from forward Ben Potts and a quarter contribution of 11 from Twierdzinski shows that Crusaders have found their feet at home, and enables Crusaders to overturn an eight point third quarter deficit in the fourth to earn Coventry their second league win.

Inconsistency continued to rear its ugly head however, with three losses accompanying this impressive comeback victory for the remainder of the month.

Christmas came early for the Crusaders, as December saw the rare presence of the TV cameras at the Sports Centre to broadcast a Crusaders game. Fans would be able to watch the match being streamed by Sportuk.tv on the internet. The coverage included the whole game with commentary from Charles Rowe, as well as post match interviews, and is even available to buy on DVD. The whole coverage can be seen by clicking here .

The cameras caught glimpses of magic that night, as Manchester’s American duet Ousley and McLaughlin-Williams notched up a combination of 75 to beat the resilient Crusaders 115-94.

The New Year brought very little luck for Crusaders, as they lost a weekend double header of home games to Derby Trailblazers in the National Trophy and Tees Valley Mohawks in the league. Coventry signed off their dismal National Trophy campaign with no wins after they were undone by magic again, losing in Manchester 80-54.

At the end January the Crusaders’ form was at an all time low, surpassing their earlier barren spell of five games by failing to win in their last ten.

Hope did arrive however, with the signing of two Americans, point guard John Olinger, and guard turned forward Travis Lay.

Both would be influential for the season’s run in, Olinger’s versatile contribution of point guarding and also averaging 14 points per game for the Crusaders, and Lay with his scoring average of 17 points per game.

February was a month of prosperity for Coventry, as they not only recorded their first win in eleven matches, but cruised to an unbeaten month of four matches which propelled them back in to contention for a play off place. The arrivals of Olinger and Lay certainly freshened things up for the Crusaders, with home wins against Derby Trailblazers and Bristol Academy Flyers, and hard fought away victories against Sheffield Arrows and a 2^nd half comeback at Taunton Tigers.

Coventry’s impressive recent form had them challenging for a 4^th place spot in the league which would give them home advantage in the end of season play offs.

That aim was still a reality by the end of the month after two wins and two losses with one game remaining, but the Crusaders would have to turn on the style and hope that other results go their way on the final day of the season, which unsurprisingly didn’t.

The last game saw the Crusaders push the unbeaten league champions right to the very end, having won the 2^nd quarter by eight points and leading by 7 at half time. Coventry never letting Reading’s points tally out of sight, but unfortunately, Reading took advantage of a foul in the dying seconds to clinch an 84-81 win which resigned Coventry to a sixth placed finish and an away tie in the play offs against third placed London Leopards.

Coventry concluded a season of mixed fortunes with a narrow 74-71 loss down at London Leopards, which summed up Coventry’s frustrating season of results. This year’s side demonstrated their ability to fight back in adversity, which will only hold the team in good stead for challenges in the coming seasons.

The club went into the summer with the encouraging and exciting news that it would be indulging in a partnership with Sixth Form Solihull College. The partnership means that the Crusaders will have access to select talented youngsters from the college into senior match players, and in return the college will have access to the Crusaders’ coaching resources and some prospective junior recruits for the college that are currently with the Crusaders.

Despite the highs and lows, the season ended on a wave of expectation with this encouraging announcement expected to boost the competitive barrier within the squad.