TSK U14 Boys Winning the National Championship in 2017/18
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Team Solent Kestrels Basketball club is renowned as one of the most popular, friendly natured and family orientated clubs in the UK. A club with committed players, coaching staff, great volunteer support and a true family ethos through-out.
Originally started by husband and wife, Jimmie and Bev Guymon, so their son Matt could play competitive local basketball alongside other talented youngsters, Solent Stars Juniors was formed in 1998. From a successful small family run club, predominantly for boys/men, the Stars later rebranded as Solent Kestrels junior programme with the sponsorship of Kestrel Guards security company. A formal merge with Solent University in 2015 to become ‘Team Solent Kestrels’ would follow. Solent University had a long-standing involvement with a men’s team in the national leagues for a number of seasons and also a thriving men’s & ladies BUCS programme with a junior girls programme in its infancy. The collaboration of both parties and the development of basketball at both Itchen College & Solent Uni has seen the club grow to one of the largest clubs in the UK, now drawing in players not only from across the south coast and UK, but also Europe & the US.
The club offers everything from grass roots & participation basketball, as well as competitive opportunities for boys and girls in the National League from U14 through to the Men's/Women's National League level. A full list of our current 2018-2019 competitive teams are as follows:
Regional CVL
U12 Girls & Boys
National League
U14 Girls & Boys
U16 Girls & Boys (2)
U18 Girls & Boys
Men’s Div. 3
Women’s Div. 2
Men’s & Women’s Div. 1
One of the clubs most important elements to it’s success structurally is it’s educational & player pathway. The club boasts close links with the DISE program for boys and girls at Itchen College with Men's 1stteam head coach, Matt Guymon, along with his assistant Jack O’Keeffe working full time with the college student athletes. Junior Girls Head Coach, Vicky Milner, heads up the girls club programme as well as being full time at Itchen running the WEABL programme. The pathway then continues with the progression to Solent University where the men’s programme is headed up by Sylvain Donneaud, also the clubs Div. 3 men’s coach, and CJ Lee, head coach of the women’s programme at Solent Uni and the Div. 1 women’s club team. This can all be shown in our player pathway segment on our website.
Beyond this can include some of the best study/basketball programs/scholarships in Europe and the USA. Recent club members have secured places at colleges and universities including; Ashley Briggs, Harvey Barr, Adam Riabi, Rael Williams, Adam Wilkinson, Sam van Oostrum, Selby Hind-Wills, Ben Maranan, Will Neighbour, Jack Preston, Carl Josey among many others. Arguably the clubs biggest success story is former Portland Trailblazers forward, Joel Freeland. Joel was personally coached by Jimmie Guymon and started with the club as a junior before progressing to Gran Canaria where he played in the ACB before being drafted to the NBA. He went on to feature for Euroleague power house CSKA Moscow as well as ACB side Unicaja Malaga.
As we’ve seen over the past 3 years the club continues to grow from strength to strength with its vision of providing quality coaching and a full range of basketball to all age groups/abilities. The next step in our future sees us move into a brand new basketball facility being built at Solent University. The investment of £28m for the ‘Solent Sports Complex’ will be HOME for the Kestrels for the 2019-2020 season and includes a FIBA level 1 facility which will be open and used by all our teams. Some recent photos of the facility can be found here: www.twitter.com/SolentKestrels
The future is bright for all involved with the club and we’d be really keen to hear from you if you have any interest in what we’re doing or have any plans on getting involved in basketball, in the future. Please see the staffing structure and contact details on this site for further information.
Originally started by husband and wife, Jimmie and Bev Guymon, so their son Matt could play competitive local basketball alongside other talented youngsters, Solent Stars Juniors was formed in 1998. From a successful small family run club, predominantly for boys/men, the Stars later rebranded as Solent Kestrels junior programme with the sponsorship of Kestrel Guards security company. A formal merge with Solent University in 2015 to become ‘Team Solent Kestrels’ would follow. Solent University had a long-standing involvement with a men’s team in the national leagues for a number of seasons and also a thriving men’s & ladies BUCS programme with a junior girls programme in its infancy. The collaboration of both parties and the development of basketball at both Itchen College & Solent Uni has seen the club grow to one of the largest clubs in the UK, now drawing in players not only from across the south coast and UK, but also Europe & the US.
The club offers everything from grass roots & participation basketball, as well as competitive opportunities for boys and girls in the National League from U14 through to the Men's/Women's National League level. A full list of our current 2018-2019 competitive teams are as follows:
Regional CVL
U12 Girls & Boys
National League
U14 Girls & Boys
U16 Girls & Boys (2)
U18 Girls & Boys
Men’s Div. 3
Women’s Div. 2
Men’s & Women’s Div. 1
One of the clubs most important elements to it’s success structurally is it’s educational & player pathway. The club boasts close links with the DISE program for boys and girls at Itchen College with Men's 1stteam head coach, Matt Guymon, along with his assistant Jack O’Keeffe working full time with the college student athletes. Junior Girls Head Coach, Vicky Milner, heads up the girls club programme as well as being full time at Itchen running the WEABL programme. The pathway then continues with the progression to Solent University where the men’s programme is headed up by Sylvain Donneaud, also the clubs Div. 3 men’s coach, and CJ Lee, head coach of the women’s programme at Solent Uni and the Div. 1 women’s club team. This can all be shown in our player pathway segment on our website.
Beyond this can include some of the best study/basketball programs/scholarships in Europe and the USA. Recent club members have secured places at colleges and universities including; Ashley Briggs, Harvey Barr, Adam Riabi, Rael Williams, Adam Wilkinson, Sam van Oostrum, Selby Hind-Wills, Ben Maranan, Will Neighbour, Jack Preston, Carl Josey among many others. Arguably the clubs biggest success story is former Portland Trailblazers forward, Joel Freeland. Joel was personally coached by Jimmie Guymon and started with the club as a junior before progressing to Gran Canaria where he played in the ACB before being drafted to the NBA. He went on to feature for Euroleague power house CSKA Moscow as well as ACB side Unicaja Malaga.
As we’ve seen over the past 3 years the club continues to grow from strength to strength with its vision of providing quality coaching and a full range of basketball to all age groups/abilities. The next step in our future sees us move into a brand new basketball facility being built at Solent University. The investment of £28m for the ‘Solent Sports Complex’ will be HOME for the Kestrels for the 2019-2020 season and includes a FIBA level 1 facility which will be open and used by all our teams. Some recent photos of the facility can be found here: www.twitter.com/SolentKestrels
The future is bright for all involved with the club and we’d be really keen to hear from you if you have any interest in what we’re doing or have any plans on getting involved in basketball, in the future. Please see the staffing structure and contact details on this site for further information.
Roll of Honor |
Solent Kestrels History |
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SENIOR
2018/19 - Men's National Cup Runners Up 2017/18 - Men's Division 1 Runners Up 2017/18 - Men's National Trophy Winners 2016/17 - Men's Division 1 Playoff Final Four 2016/17 - Men's National Cup Runners Up 2016/17 - Men's Division 3 Playoff Final Four 2016/17 - Women's Division 1 Playoff Runners Up 2016/17 - Women's National Cup Runners Up 2016/17 - Women's Division 1 Champions 2015/16 - Men's Division 2 Playoff Runners Up 2015/16 - Men's Division 2 Champions 2014/15 - Men's Division 3 Playoff Runners Up 2014/15 - Men's Division 3 South Champions JUNIOR 2017/18 - Under 14 Boys National Champions - George Clark - MVP 2009/10 - Under 15 Boys National Champions - George Beard MVP 2004/05 - Under 18 Men National Cup Winners- Joel Freeland MVP |
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