Magic women aiming for steady improvement

NEW Mandurah Magic women's SBL coach Randy Miegel has taken a fresh approach with the team ahead of the 2014 focusing on fitness and building a strong team morale with the hope of a vast improvement on just seven wins the last two seasons.

Despite being led by one of the women's SBL stars Casey Mihovilovich, the Magic won just two games in 2012 and then five in 2013 with Miegel now coming in as the new coach with free reign to try and turn the program around.

Miegel knows that it would be a big ask to expect the Magic to go from winning seven games in two years to suddenly being a title contender, but Mandurah has set some realistic goals of improving to at least become a team capable of being in the hunt for a playoff berth.

The new coach had the Magic girls beginning their pre-season campaign in October and now hopes that hard work turns into improved performances on the court starting this weekend.

"We are excited about the start of the season and have set some realistic goals for the year. We believe we are going to be more than competitive and look forward to playing a good brand of basketball," Miegel said.

"We started a pre-season programme early around mid October with the idea of getting together both on court and off court.

"The girls have been disappointed in the performances over the past two seasons with a total of only seven wins - five last year and only two in 2012.

"So as a coach leading this team for the first time I decided that we needed to change some things up. We have focused on fitness and also building a strong team morale."

The opening round of the season will see the Magic face the Perry Lakes Hawks on Sunday at the WA Basketball Centre in what will be Mihovilovich's 350th appearance in the SBL.

However, Miegel knows the key to Mandurah's improvement this season will be based on getting Mihovilovich and fellow veteran Gemma Thomas more help on the court, and he's confident he will keep developing that as 2014 rolls on.

"Our squad is once again lead by Casey Mihovilovich who will play her 350th game on Sunday and Gemma Thomas who has been a regular starter for many years," Miegel said.

"Bree Klasztorny and Rachel Halleen are girls who have also been in the Mandurah Magic system for quite a few years and we are looking forward to big years by both these girls.

"Our squad then is made up of some young and exciting junior players who will get their opportunity to show their stuff this year.

"We have Emma Klasztorny who has returned from college this season, Jorjah Smith who has been a regular WA state junior, Ash Sidebottom who has just come off a u-20 national campaign and Rachel Pettit who is a speedy exciting guard for us who has just been named captain of u-18 country girls team. We also have another group of girls who are also in under age state programmes.

"We are also waiting on the return of our import Hayley Dunham who played for the club several years ago and was outstanding during her stay, we look forward to adding her scoring talent and versatility to our squad."

Article by Chris Pike




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