Sheffield Hatters already looking to consolidate at top of British basketball after historic quadruple-winning season
The celebrations to honour Sheffield Hatters’ historic season are set to rage on for days but planning for next season and how they keep themselves at the top of women’s basketball will get underway today.
Just 48 hours after the Hatters beat Caledonia Gladiators in the play-off final at London’s O2 Arena to complete a clean sweep of all four trophies Women’s Super League Basketball has to offer, meetings are set to take place to start looking into what’s next.
For Vanessa Ellis, the head coach who has led them to this unprecedented season of success, that means looking at which players she can retain to try and do it all again next season.
“I’d love to keep as many of those players as we can,” said Ellis, while acknowledging a lot of the players that helped London Lions complete the quadruple three seasons ago moved a few rungs up the ladder to play in the Women’s NBA.
“Success always makes it harder to keep these players.
“What we’ve achieved this year is really difficult to do. I know London Lions did it but they had a multi-million pound roster and six of those players are in the WNBA now.
“So you’ve got to give credit to the players, they’ve worked hard and dug in. We’ve had ups and downs through the season but every single one of them has contributed to it - it’s been amazing.”
Ellis’s chief executive at the Hatters, Sarah Backovic, is on the same page in wanting to keep as many of the stars of this historic season - league MVP Megan Mullins among them - as possible.
The final decision rests with Vaughn Millette, the American entrepreneur who took a majority stake in the Hatters and the Sharks two years ago and is a big supporter of the women’s game.
Backovic said: “We’re going to look to retain as many as we can, everybody has different ideas of what they want to do next but our goal will be to retain the core players and top up where necessary.”
The conversation of whether Hatters venture into European competition next season is sure to be on the agenda but that would require significant investment and it is thought the club want to see the league and the British basketball ecosystem stabilise a bit more before they plough on into that.
On the Hatters’ achievement this season, Backovic - who brought the club in alongside the Sharks at Canon Medical Arena three years ago - added: “It’s got to be one of the best seasons ever.
“It’s not been a walk in the park, it’s been a long year of battling different issues, but in the main they’ve had tremendous cohesion on the court and a fantastic ability to keep composed.”