Basketball
Raiders Bulking Up As Moore Returns
27 July 2007
The Kularoos Plymouth Raiders have returned Gaylon Moore for a third season with the club ahead of the 2007/08 BBL Championship season. Gary Stronach's team fought off competition from several Spanish clubs to secure the signature of the 29-year-old.
"It's getting really exciting," said Raiders coach Gary Stronach. "The team is coming together just as I hoped it would. Getting Gaylon back is massive for us, and I'm absolutely over the moon that he's signed. The move now makes us a legitimate contender this season. We won the BBL trophy last year, and over the summer we've got even stronger with the signing of Brody Bishop and James Noel. To beat off competition for Gaylon from Spain just shows how highly we're thought of now, and it's also a testament to Gaylon's loyalty that he's come back for another year.
"Gaylon was fantastic for us last year," added Stronach, "and I'm going to be looking for even more from him again this season. He's one of the senior players on the team now, one of the leaders. He can't wait to come back and get started, and help push us to become one of the toughest and most consistent teams in the league."
The signing of the 6'8" forward further bulks up the Raiders' front line as the combination of Moore, James Noel, and Terrance Durham will make them a big-rebounding team and a tough match-up. Last season Moore (10.08 per game) was second in the BBL in rebounding, and new signing James Noel was 10th (7.96 per game). Add to that Terrence Durham who led the league in rebounds in the team's first season in the BBL 4 years ago. Moore was also Raiders 3rd leading scorer last year with nearly 16 points a game.
"It's a huge signing for us," said Raiders' Chief executive Dave Briggs. "The Board took the bold step of telling Gary to go out and sign the best team he could get, and that's exactly what he's done. And what's more exciting is that we haven't finished yet - we're working on getting one more player signed."
Moore graduated from Union University, Tennessee in 2000 and right away joined the Scottish Phoenix Honda Rocks. This will be his fourth season in the BBL, having also featured for the Worthing Thunder for four years in EBL Division 1.
In a move sure to excite the team's fans, Coach Stronach also went on to disclose that the Raiders might not be finished with recruitment for the coming season just yet. "We're still talking to a number of other players about one spot that we have left on the team."
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