Richmond upon Thames College has a history of well-established connections with top quality basketball. In the late nineties such talented players as Jermaine Forbes (Scottish Rocks BBL, England), Ryan Cadogan (Thames Valley BBL) and Pierre Henry Fontaine (Milton Keynes BBL, England) attended the College. In response to a growing demand for an organised form of basketball at the College, the sports department, working in conjunction with London United Basketball Club, decided to establish a Basketball Academy in 2001. The idea behind it was to create a programme, similar to European schools of excellence, where students can combine education with everyday training and playing at the highest level.
In the first year of its existence, the Academy proved to be an outstanding success winning the Under 20 National Championship as well as the British Colleges Championship and British Schools Championship. In 2003, the Under 20 team successfully defended the title when, “in heart stopping fashion,” they beat Manchester Magic in the semi-final, and then Middlesborough College in the final. In the same year, the Under 18 team participated in the RAF Final Fours. In the season 2003-04, Richmond Basketball Academy came agonizingly close to a repeat in the Under 20 League when they were defeated by Manchester Magic in the semi-final of the Final Fours tournament. In 2005 the Academy team made it through to the Play Offs, but were unfortunately defeated in the quarter-finals.
The seasons 2005-06 and 2006-07 were tough seasons for the Richmond Academy as the old Under 20 League was scrapped by England Basketball, and the team had to compete solely at Under 18 level with their less experienced younger players. By 2007 the Academy team had regrouped and matured, and in the season 2007-08, the Under 18 team won the EBL Under 18 South Conference League and the Men’s team (comprising mainly Under 18 players as well) came an extremely creditable 4th in the EBL Men’s Division Four League.
In the current season 2008-09, the Richmond Basketball Academy has again entered national competitions, and currently the Academy team is competing in both the EBL Under 18 Men Premier South East League and the EBL Division Four Men Midlands South League and also two cup competitions, the Men’s National Shield (which is for teams in EBL Divisions Three and Four) and the Sureshot National Cup (which is for EBL Under 18 teams).
Richmond College Basketball Academy, alongside London United Basketball Club, has excellent European connections, and the Academy team often travels abroad for international training camps and tournaments. From 2000 – 2005, the Richmond Basketball Academy participated in the World Junior International Tournament in Douai in France, where the college team was strengthened with prominent talent from the rest of the country as it took on the cream of national teams from the rest of Europe and the USA. The most successful moment came in 2000 when the team finished 3rd, and its main guest stars were Luol Deng, currently with Chicago Bulls playing in the NBA, and Nick George, currently playing in PRO A in Gravelines in France. The following years brought a very respectable 5th place in 2002 and 6th in 2004.
In 2007, the Academy team travelled twice to France as guests of the Gravelines Basketball Club and then, in 2008, the Academy team travelled in June to an international training camp at Unicaja, Malaga in Spain, and, again in October, to Zalgiris, Kaunas in Lithuania.
Recently the Basketball Academy has begun to develop even closer links with the European basketball scene by staging its very own event, the Future Stars Tournament 2008. Future Stars is a unique basketball event which combines an international junior tournament with an international coaching conference. Future Stars 2008 provided the opportunity, for the first time in over 15 years, for UK spectators to watch top junior European teams in action. The national Under 18 teams of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic and the junior teams of two leading European clubs, Unicaja Malaga in Spain and Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania joined the Richmond upon Thames College Select Team (which comprised players from the Academy plus other top players from the Greater London area, and which was coached by former NBA player, Steve Bucknall) in participating in the tournament. The tournament was won by the Czech Republic which beat Poland in the final, with the Richmond team taking a very creditable 5th place.
The coaching conference was attended by more than 130 coaches from England, Poland, Israel, Iceland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and France. During this two day event, a series of lectures was delivered by two top European coaches, Sergio Scariolo from Unicaja Malaga in Spain and Aleksandar Trifunovic from Lietuvos Rytas in Lithuania. Richmond upon Thames College was partnered in this event by London United Basketball Club, Kingston College, England Basketball, London Basketball, Pro-Active South London, FIBA Europe, NBA, London Borough of Croydon, Adidas and Choice FM who all contributed to its outstanding success.
It is now planned to make the Future Stars Tournament an annual event and, in 2009, to expand it to eight international teams rather then six. Building on the success of that, it is hoped in future years, to expand it even further to include an international Under 16 tournament as well.
