Players share special goal now

Sep 21 2007 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

NEWCASTLE Eagles basketball team are the latest sports club to throw their support behind Northern Rock on a day when they reaped the rewards of their link-up with the bank.

Aaron Neilsen, Adam Hall and Will Spragg (son of assistant coach Billy Spragg) yesterday became the first players to sign for the British Basketball League side’s first team after progressing through the Community Foundation scheme.

The teenagers have all signed one-year scholarships subsidised by former player Andrew Sullivan, but it was thanks to Northern Rock’s support that they became involved in the sport – and Eagles managing director Paul Blake believes it is time the region repaid the bank.

Northern Rock is the Eagles’ new shirt sponsor for the coming season, which starts with a game at home to Guildford Heat tonight. But it has supported the Eagles Community Foundation, which promotes sustainable basketball participation in Tyne and Wear and south-east Northumberland, since the group’s inception.

Mr Blake said: “It’s a company which has given unprecedented support for sport in the North-East and for them to go through what they’ve been through, it’s important the region supports them now.

“It’s given sport in our community great support from the grassroots all the way up. Without their support for the last five years, we wouldn’t have been able to put in place a lot of the things we would have wanted to.

“The benefits to the local community in offering an alternative sport that’s played mainly in the evening has had its own social benefits for the community as a whole.”

The Eagles Hoops for Health primary schools programme is part of the Eagles Community Foundation, encouraging schools to teach basketball. As well as promoting the sport, the ECF also educates children about healthy living.

ECF employs 10 full-time and 15 part-time staff to develop basketball clubs and provide opportunities for volunteers to qualify in coaching and refereeing. Mr Blake said: “Adam and Aaron have been in the Community Foundation scheme since they were 10 and the three of them are the first players to come through the system.”