The Sudbury Five, the city's winning Basketball Super League (BSL) team, has high hopes for its new coach, Joey Puddister, who was introduced at a media conference Dec. 4.
"Our goal is simple," Sudbury Five operations director Andrea Zulich.
"We want to run it back and we want to bring another championship title to the city. We believe this newest addition is a perfect fit to lead us there. Please join me in welcoming the new head coach and general manager of your Sudbury Five, Joey Puddister."
Puddister, who played with the Sudbury Five from 2018 to 2020, said he was pleased with the warm welcome and he offered thanks to the team for bringing him back to Sudbury in the new coaching role.
"It’s pretty special to be able to come back to a place that I have history as a player and take on the head coaching job,” said Puddister. “Yeah, I'm just really excited for the opportunity.”
He also had words of praise for former coach Logan Stutz, who is bidding the team farewell after winning the Basketball Super League Championship last season, for his work as a coach and mentor.
"Logan's built an incredible foundation here, obviously coming off of a championship season,” Puddister said.
“That's something that I'm really excited to work with and our returning players to build on and to bring in some exciting new talent as well, and to look for a repeat again this season.”
The team held a news conference Thursday to let fans and supporters know what's in store for this coming season. Team publicist Julia Williams recalled the excitement of the winning game back in April when the Five took the league championship.
"This championship showed the commitment and teamwork resilience and their motivation and perseverance," said Williams.
Zulich told the audience the team is looking to repeat that performance this year.
"Today is an exciting day for the Sudbury Five,” she said. “We are officially kicking everything off. Our champions’ home opener is in T-minus 25 days, and we're looking to repeat again this season, and we're doing this with some key players coming back, and some new players coming in. So welcome everybody."
Zulich said she was personally excited to see the team and how well it was supported by the community in the past year.
Sudbury basketball fans will be invited to take part in the home opener on Monday, Dec. 29, which will be the banner-raising night for the BSL league championship.
Williams said the first 1,000 fans through the doors will receive a commemorative championship mini-banner. She had more to share.
“Well, now the full schedule hasn't been announced yet, but I'm pleased to share a few standouts with you today, the fan-favourite baby race will be back at the end of January,” she said.
The team will also be celebrating mascot Rock Monster (Rocky)’s birthday, and will have an apres ski night, and other specialty theme nights.
She added that the team will take on a new look at Saturday night games, by introducing a new "show stopping" uniform in baby-blue colours instead of red. They will be known the Sudbury Rock Monsters.
"This animated alter-ego will be taking the court every Saturday night home game, bringing the dynamic, thrilling energy to an all time high, building on top of an already electric fan experience, the rock monster games will be even more sensational," said Williams.
Len Gillis is a reporter with Sudbury.com.