Where future stars now…

Having announced details for Mens and U18’s it is right time to reveal details of upcoming U16’s season!

After very promising first year at CBL, our squads are moving to National League for domestic competition. Since the day one we saw a big increase in numbers for our U16 age group. We have started with 12 boys, just before lockdown, and now we have 37 players registered. We did enter 2 squads in CBL which turned to be very competitive league with great exposure. With such a great interest and need for basketball we can confirm that in season 2020/21 we will enter 2 teams into National League and 1 into CBL. Additionally, best players will represent London Elite in EYBL which shows exactly the philosophy of the club: Play against the best as often as it is possible!

In Season 20/21 one of squad’s National league level teams will train and play at Alec Reed Academy while other team will be based at Capital City Academy. As this was widely discussed at coaches meeting, we decided to spread this age group locations. Our GM Daniel Szatkowski said:”The Interest in playing for our club has grown so rapidly to the point that we currently face one issue: how to create more squads? Furthermore,the decision of teams playing at different venues will wider catchment area and allow various kids to join us and compete at European level.”

We are in the process of recruiting for Head coach position for Alec Reed branch, so few candidates are being considered, while we can confirm that Coach Mauri Di Nunzio will take our Italian coach had to say:

“As a new team, my goal is to create a competitive and solid group mainly focusing on the personal skill set and team chemistry. As first season together, we will try to compete as high as possible to give the kids the necessary experience to achieve goals.

All squads will have regular 2-3 training sessions a week, what is more they will benefit from access to our Osteopath Adam. Social media service run by Ivan Grotsev would make sure their best performance moments are recorded and shared, while most talented kids will play up with U18’s.

In respect of quarantine restrictions , we can confirm that we will be running trials on 1 to 1 basis, following government social distancing measures. Please check details below:

U18’s new plan of action

London Elite U18’s plans are here! We are happy to announce that in season 2020/21 our squads will compete in National league, CBL and European Youth Basketball League (EYBL).

Provision of these competition will create unique platform in best possible exposure for players during 20/21 campaign.

A major change within the team will be Coach Daniel stepping down and handing team to coach Kieran Matthews. This is what he had to say:

“It was right time for me to hand this talented team into hands of Kieran. I see him as one of better upcoming coaches in whole UK. I am sure this is going to be really exciting project!”

Our home for U18/s will be Capital City Academy, which is fantastic venue with 500 bleaches plus attractive location in north west London.

Coach Kieran Matthews said:

“I’m 24 been coaching since I was 16. I can’t wait to take the u18s national and 17s EYBL. As a coach it’s a step up for me , as up until now I’ve mainly worked with u16 and academy players. I’ve been working with Elite players, who have gone on to do great things for some time, so I know I’m ready for any challenges ahead. I think this is going to be a great experience. My philosophy as a coach is very simple. I’m big believer in positionless basketball as-well as encouraging players to Think for themselves. I coach guys for the NEXT level for where they WANT to be not what we need know.”

“As a coach I am the tough love guy, I push the guys as much as I can to get the best out of them on and off the court. My priority with these guys is to develop Top level athletes who can achieve their goals and compete in the highest level league in Europe but also help them become good and disciplined people.” Coach Matthews continues.

Elite squad will benefit from everyday training with highly qualified coaches while will have access to compete in ABL too.

Head Coach Kieran Matthews will be available on Zoom on Saturday 9th of May at 3 pm. Link will be posted on our Facebook and Instagram profiles. Do not miss this opportunity to find out more details about his philosophy, opportunities and what support you will receive in reaching your basketball goals!

Upcoming new men’s team!

We are excited to announce that in season 2020/21 we will be competing in National League Division 3 organised by Basketball England. With our ambitions to provide best possible platform for players to develop their game and collect needed experience this would be ideal opportunity. Our Head Coach Daniel Szatkowski will look after this project. He will be assisted by upcoming young italian coach, Mauro DiNunzio.

Our team will be based on our EYBL U20 team with addition of few men’s and experience players. Coach Daniel said:

“Our philosophy as a club is very simple. We want to develop best possible players. However we understand that on mens level, they need to be supported by experience players who can assist the younger group during season. We have very talented kids at Capital City who will benefit from this project and I am looking forward this new challenge for us as a club”

Despite lockdown period, our club has started working towards building strong structures for upcoming season, starting with addition of Adam Burjij to our staff who will look after our players and educate them about injury prevention. Our team will be having regular highlights and great social media exposure with credit to Ivan Grotsev who is one of best in business!

There is one more name that we need you to highlighted, which is Josh White.Our first men’s player has played professionally in countries such as Germany, France, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Prior to playing professional, Josh has experience playing university basketball at the NJCAA, NAIA and NCAA levels. This is what he said:

“I am 31 years old and I’ve been playing competitive high level basketball for the past 15 years. Over the last 6 years, I’ve played for well over 25 clubs in more than 10 countries around the world. Not every stop on my journey was successful, there have been ups and downs, I’ve been cut from teams and won championships with teams. In the end, I have always learned something and come out of the experience a better person and player. My favorite part about playing basketball overseas is the relationships I’ve developed all over the world. I’m looking forward to to playing with London Elite this season in the NBL and helping this group achieve their goals.”

We organising online trials for players interested due to lockdown restrictions. As soon as we are back to training we will have invitation only on court tryouts. Please do not miss opportunity as our men’s team journey is looking exciting! Please see details below.

Contact coach Daniel on 077453314867 or [email protected], should you have more questions.

The Future is bright

Despite ongoing lockdown situation where clubs have been forced to shut down their practises, we decided to work extra hard in other areas of the game.

Coaches discussion and brainstorming session helped to set the right direction for the club and its members to improve our basketball standards. As we have entered 5th week of lockdown, we are improving on delivering various basketball activities. Please have a quick preview below:

1. London School of Basketball Push up challenge.

We are proud of our teams competing against other clubs in push up challenge. Our squads worked hard and improved over 4 weeks time significantly. Additionally, our own U18’s have been crowned London Champions beating Cohenel in final!

2. Strength and Conditioning

We are fortunate to have some great S&C coaches on board, we decided to run online sessions on Zoom app. Great exercises allowed boys to imrpove their explosivnes, strenght and helped them understand more importance of stretching.

3. Adam on board!

We strive towards the best possible standards of the club, therefore we are happy to introduce Adam, our new Osteopath who will work with people across the club. Adam delivered great injury prevention clips which can be found on our Instagram Elite TV.

As players are working really hard on their game, we did not forget about fun ideas too. We organised 2K tournament which was played by 32 players, we have ongoing weekly spot the difference which turned to be great idea. Additionally we have Netflix parties with “Last Dance” documentary, parents meeting on zoom.

Finally what is most important, it would not be possible without one person. If it was not his creativity and amazing talent, most of our staff would not be possible. We are truly blessed to have Ivan Grotsev on board as Media person. He is true MVP!

Welcome to the family Adam!

Regardless of current lockdown situation, our club has not ceased working. Our director Daniel Szatkowski is fully focused on improving structures of the club to be 100% ready for day 1 of returning to our biggest passion, which is playing and training basketball everyday.

As first season proved we have unbelievable squad of coaches and supporters, we understood that certain parts of players development were reaching beyond their even advanced knowledge. This led the club into introducing Adam Bourjij to our London Elite team, who will be responsible for injury prevention and treatment. Adam will work on overall understanding of joint movement as he is fully qualified as Osteopath.

Coach Daniel said:” To have Adam with us is truly a blessing. His knowledge and experience is greatly recognisable and I am more then convinced that he will bring additional quality in development for our players. It is another sign London Elite is absolutely focusing on development and investing in better quality of service”

This is what Adam said:”It’s a true pleasure to officially join London Elite. My previous great professional experience with Daniel convinced me when I was making my decision and I am really excited to be part of this project and helping club growing in an optimal environment. As an Osteopath, the key is in prevention of injuries, which is true for players but also for everyone in general”

“By having a fair postural assessment, examining key areas of the body, you will be able to tailor the most suitable treatment and program to stay healthy whether you need to get ready for the games ahead or facing daily challenges!” Aam continues.

Adam will work from season 2020/21 however he is happy to help during lockdown with great workouts which will be posted on our social media.He collected amazing experience while working with London Wasp Rugby club and with some Olympian sprinters through Speedworks program.

Head to Instagram and Facebook tomorrow for his first injury prevention. We believe he will truly improve preparation of our players and we are excited to see what Adam can bring into our Elite family!

Elite Duo commits to TMG Prep Academy

As our season is slowly coming to the end, we have more and more exciting news coming in. After season of playing for London Elite U20 squad, Richie Bumba and Kitan Ogunbona have landed full athletic scholarship from TMG Prep Academy in California!

Coach Daniel Szatkowski said:” Them two boys were really hard working duo, despite fact of living more than an hour travel from Capital City, they still frequently made it to 6:30 am sessions. It’s great that they show younger players on Elite program what hard work really is and how it pays off. I am proud of their commitment and will look out for their further development”

“The London Elite programme gave me an opportunity and a platform to showcase my talents. Coming to a team that emphasises ball movement so much wasn’t something I was used to but in adjusting to it, it improved my IQ and offensive ability as a whole. I’m grateful to Coach Daniel for giving me the opportunity to play for London Elite & I want to say thank you for being a Coach that we could all laugh and joke with, but also pushing us to get better as a team and individually.” “

“I’m also grateful to all of my teammates for putting up with my antics off the court, and supporting me on the court. Any previous differences aside, you guys showed me genuine love and I appreciate that!” Kitan Ogunbona said.

“I’m grateful to Coach Daniel for giving me the opportunity to play for London Elite as it helped me better get better as a team and individually from the 6:30 am morning sessions to work we put in the summer it showed me the importance of preparation.I’m also grateful for my teammates who I put in work with and won with and lost with, those EYBL trips brought closer and I didn’t just gain friends I gained brothers thanks for showing the love on and off the court and also and I’m grateful for it.” Richie Bumba added.”

We would like to say massive Thank You for representing our programm. We are truly proud of their progress and we will be looking out for further development of Richie and Kitan!

U20’s EYBL journey in books!

Our U20 squad left UK on 26th of February onroute to Valmiera, Latvia. As a part of European Youth Basketball League our squad completed 3 different tournament, playing overall 15 games against top competitions from 8 different countries.

As our team was formed in late summer, we had little time to prepare, however team made program proud by coming 12 position out of 18 despite injuries problem throughout campaign. Head Coach D.Szatkowski said: “When you look where we were in summer, and were we are now we can clearly see it was a journey to remember. Many players emerged from nowhere and made a statement at highest European level. My vision is to build to for players and help them grow. I am happy that we achieved it despite some results not going our way”

We are proud to see some of our players receiving recognition and being awarded individual awards. Joshua Alimi picked the best player of the team award after completing stage with 13 points per game This is what he had to say: “It was an experience of growth throughout the tournament my teammates put there trust in me, which allowed me to express myself and execute my scoring ability when my team needed me to”

As our top scorer Matthew Disu enjoyed another successful tournament, he has been selected All Star 5 award by the league which is a phenomenal achievement, Matthew said:” Competing in eybl from stage 1 all the way to stage 3 has really changed the way I approach basketball. It showed me that you can’t get anywhere without genuine hard work, preparation and discipline. Playing in EYBL I learnt so much, the things I learnt here has made me a much better player. It helped me understand to play smarter not harder. I appreciate my coach for widening my basketball knowledge and experience by giving me the opportunity to compete against top players in Europe

As this campaign has come to the end, we are already planning season 20/21. Big thanks to Ivan Grotsev for an outstanding work with media. His work was just unbelievable! Stay tuned for upcoming info regarding this fascinating project!

February camp in books!

As our season is at full swing, we have never forgotten about importance of holiday camps. While most of clubs take time off basketball, we have different idea about using this holiday period.

We are very happy to inform that we had 53 kids throughout the week attending our camp! We were able to arrange quality of coaches with coach Daniel, Kieran and Mauro being responsible for progress of participants. Additionally every camper attending more then 3 days received a free t-shirt!

Coach Keiran who impressed kids with quality of sessions said:

“It was fun to work with Elite camp during this break. When you realise that London Elite is couple months old, you have problems with believing how great club it is with great talented kids. It was fun to work with other coaches!”

During the camp players could improve their overall skills while having multiple competitions including: Dunk contest, Skills challenge or 3 point contest!

Most improved camper award went to Tymarli who is still U10 and worked extremely hard through out all 5 days!

As this camp is a wrap, we can’t wait to next break during the Easter period. Break full of fun, development and creating memories!

Stay tuned for camp documentary video, which will be shortly released.

What a start of 2020 for our players!

As our club has entered new calendar year with great trip to Xmas tournament in Belgium, we did not forget how important it is to compete in all our regular competitions. Every player across London Elite is improving significantly, furthermore few of our boys earned special individual awards in January 2020.

Aaron Pyne has joined our program in summer 2019 and from day one showed good ability to perform at highest possible level. As he is our main point guard, he shows no fear towards top competition in Europe leading our U17’s team in EYBL competition. Aaron earned very prestigious All Star 5 tournament which is given to best players of whole stage!

Our teams compete in London School of Basketball league which has grown into one of most competitive leagues in country. Our U12’s and U14’s show on regular bases that our program is one of most competitive in whole country. But this success would not be possible without individual performances of our players.

Jaidan Midha has been outstanding throughout whole season and Belgium tournament gave him additional boost of confidence which Jaidan used in LSB U14 age category, leading our side to improve our record to 4-1!

Jaidan recorded unbelievable 56 points on day in 2 games. He scored 32 points against Westside and followed with 24 against Greenwich Admirals.His shooting ability is very much needed for our team! He truly deserved player of the month January in U14 London Premier League!

Our U14’s Head Coach Matt Williams said: “It’s been a absolute pleasure coaching a future 5 star player, hard working, resilient, calm under pressure and mature above his years. His commitment and work ethic puts him a great place for his basketball future”

As our U12 team is marching to claim first place after regular season, it has been noticed that our results would not be possible without our fiercy guard, Kaya Birsen. Despite being still U11 he shows no fear against older competition. Kaya shows lots of potential in basketball. In months ahead, this is exactly what our team needs!#

Our own Myles Davendra had a great start of the year in both, on and off the court. After returning from Xmas tournament in Belgium he proved that he is not only one of most improving players across our U12 team but represents pour club in excellent way at his school! We are really proud to say Myles Represent club excellent not only while playing, but he earn very prestigious golden medal at Ealing Schools Challenge Quest where he delivered great presentation called “Eat, Sleep…play basketball”. It is our pride to say that Myles met coach Daniel at his primary school sessions when he was 8 years old. What a journey Myles has had so far! He played his first international tournament in December, he competes on our first U12 team and what is most exciting… there is more to come!

Expect more from us…

Our u17 squad had been hit with lack of 2 main inside players heading out to stage 2 of EYBL league. As our tournament started with unexpected forfeit from London United our boys had only 4 games left to play.

Coach Daniel Szatkowski said:” We knew being hit with loss of our leading players we would need extra effort to secure our own rebounds”

As first two games were cold shower for our boys, we knew that our team is not travelling to Poland to give up that easily. European style of basketball is different then London players see on day to day basis. It is great experience to face against top teams in Europe. First two games against Tsmoki Minks and Sykki Helsinki showed how much we need to adapt in style of play.

During the second day of tournament our U17 squad faced SMS Pzkosz and showed the ‘never die’ attitude. Despite loss at the end we could see much improved performance which gave boys extra shot of confidence before last game of tournament. In last game before return to London our u17 team faced BS Jugla from Latvia. Led by fiercy guards A, Pyne and M.Cotterell jumped into early double digits lead. First half saw u16’s A.Wildish scoring 11 points.

As team continued to lead in double digits behind 23 points performance from Cotterell, it was our young guard going down with knee injury towards end of 3rd period. Our squad lost confidence on offensive end and narrowly missed last game by 2 points. Highly disappointing result after such a great performance however being outrebounded by opponents was hard to be overcome.

Morgan Cotterell said:”The trips really helped us get better as a team and taught us a lot about the game of basketball. The first games were scrappy and we didn’t play team basketball. The last games were a lot better we moved the ball and worked well together and had a lot more assists as a team.”

Our boys currently stand with 3-7 record and will need a big 3rd stage to push for play offs race. We have to congratulate to A.Pyne for achieving unbelievable prestigious All Star 5 of the tournament after averaging 13.7 points, 4.6 rebound and nearly 3 assists per game.

Aaron Pyne said:”We were prepared for worst. Realising that we were a relatively small team and outsized and outrebounded but also coming to realise the fact we had the most heart. I am proud of my teammates in how we got stronger together as a team and individually, we no only wait to take stage 3. Stage 3 is ours. Just wait!”

Stage 3 of EYBL U17 will be held in Minsk, Belarus between 26-29 of March.