West Yorkshire Hawks looking for organic growth of local basketball ecosystem

As the club enters its second year, they have a men’s team playing in Division Three of the English Basketball League at the University of Huddersfield to upwards of 150 people per game and are about to launch a senior women’s programme.

Through a partnership with the University of Huddersfield, they can offer basketball scholarships. But the Hawks also want to breed coaches, officials and help grow the sport.

The club and its vision was the brainchild of Mark Mills, who a decade ago helped get the Leeds Beckett University programme into the British Basketball League as Leeds Force. Since then he has seen the holes in the West Yorkshire basketball infrastructure that need plugging. And it all starts with the flagship men’s team.

“That’s the biggest thing for us, it’s all about local talent, opportunities for local people,” said Mills.

“In basketball you can get caught up in ‘we must win at all costs’, let’s go and find some Americans to play.

“Even in Division Three we’ll play against teams that have recruited Americans, but - and this freaks people out when I say it - we’re not targeting winning basketball games, we’re driven by a purpose of improving lives and communities across West Yorkshire by using basketball.

“The men’s team is there to give people opportunities around West Yorkshire to play at a higher level. I don’t want those opportunities eaten up by me bringing in an American so we can get promoted. If we get promoted it will be organic because the guys that are from around here are of a level to be promoted.”

Four new players have joined the senior team this year and 12 players were retained.

“It will cost £30,000 to run the Hawks this year,” continues Mills. “Most clubs will go to the players and say we’re splitting that by 15, you’re all going to pay £500 to £600 each and we’ll find the rest somewhere else. Whereas we set ourselves up as more commercially focused; we sell tickets, we have sponsorship, we get public sector funding to deliver coaching, that enables us to make basketball in the National League more accessible.

“So our guys are paying £50 a year to play basketball and doing it in front of nearly 200 fans.”

Arguably their biggest recruit is at head coach, Danny Byrne, who has experience of coaching the British Basketball League with Manchester Giants. But even his arrival pinpointed a hole in the system.

“There’s so few coaches around here,” says Mills. “We put our advert out for a new head coach and we got two applications.

“That’s a big part of what we’re trying to do: grow a coaching community by getting extra resources.

“And it’s across the sport; things like table officials, every home game I’m having to pay for one to come out of the county because there’s only three or four in the whole of the county. We’re trying to help build out the whole infrastructure in West Yorkshire.”

The club’s big focus this year is establishing a women’s programme.

“The landscape for women’s basketball in West Yorkshire is pretty much non-existent. The Leeds league has five women’s teams in it, and two of those are from Sheffield,” says Mills.

“There’s no National League women’s team in the whole of West Yorkshire and hasn’t been for over 10 years, so we’ve collaborated with a local team who are now coming under our banner.

“So the Hawks women’s programme will play at the university, will play local league for this season and then we’ll hopefully look to launch a National League women’s team from next season. This could be a big step forward for women’s basketball.

“On the men’s side, along with the University of Huddersfield whose understanding of what basketball can do has been really positive, we’re providing coaching and development opportunities for their players as well, so their head coach is a part of the Hawks structure. They’re offering scholarship opportunities - education, basketball sessions three times a week, S&C, nutrition.”

Beyond that it would be a girls programme next, but not necessarily a provision for boys, just yet.

“There are so many junior basketball programmes across West Yorkshire that it’s not a hole we need to fill,” says Mills. “We don’t want to cannibalise other people’s programmes and put them in trouble, unless there’s a strategic reason, like helping to create an elite pathway. That’s not a priority for us.”

Mills, whose men’s team begin their season on Saturday October 6, concludes: “The impact we’re having is reliant on our commercial partners and sponsors coming on board to help invest in the sport and have an impact.

“And we’d love people to come and watch. A family-of-four ticket is £22.50. That’s nothing.”