The community basketball club has seen a resurgence in fortunes over the last 18 months – back-to-back promo-tion is on the cards while it has earned national recognition for its hard work. Due to the exceptional quality of Rossendale’s organisation and coach-ing, it has been recognised by England Basketball and Sport England thro-ugh the granting of the Clubmark accreditation. And the Haslingden Sport Centre-based club is on course to gain promotion in to the top division of the Manchester Basketball League.

“We are delighted to receive the Clubmark accreditation which is testament to the hard work put in by many volunteers at the club,” said chairman Ken Masser. “It was a great way to end the year. “The club would not have been able to achieve this award without the fantastic assistance received from the local bask-etball development officer Adam Cow-perthwaite and Club Development Officer Katie Miller from Rosse-ndale Leisure Trust.” He added: “The Clubmark award is aimed at junior clubs and indic-ates that the club provides a safe and open environment for their young participants and do a good job of developing players, coaches, officials and basketball in general.”

Rossendale Basketball Club was founded in 1962 by a group mainly consisting of ex-school friends but has evolved dramatically over its 48 year history and is now building strong foundations to ensure it celebrates its 50th anniversary stronger and more successful than ever.

In 2001, the club realised that in order to safeguard its future, it would need to expand the junior section. The youth structure was quickly up and running and now caters for an ever growing number of boys and girls aged between nine and 18. The club has expanded into a second facility to cater for the increase in demand from new membership.

In 2010, with new sponsors World Options and Castings Services Group, assisting the club financially, the newly named Rossendale Raptors have continued to develop.

The Club now has professional basketball coaches working in local schools for the first time and is hosting regular school tournaments.

And then senior men’s team is flying the flag for the club. Masser added: “The success of our first team has certainly helped to raise the profile of the club and attracted new players to the club. “Our senior team has built on the success of last seas-on’s promotion from Division Two of the Manchester Basket-ball League. “New head Coach Jim Fry has guided the team to a perfect undefeated record this season and we are on course for successive promo-tion into the league’s top division.”

With Fry, a former England Schoolboy international in charge, the club has been able to increase the competition for places in its elite squad with the recruitment of National League and International talent. “Spirits are high within the team and that confidence has filtered throughout the club with some excellent performances from the men’s second team, and junior teams,” added Masser. “We have brought in some very good players, including England U17s Tom Platt and former Romanian professional John Slabu which is great for the club.”

With the new Clubmark status the Raptors hope to further expand its junior section, develop school prog-rams and continue to see success at the senior level. The aim is to develop a national league program at each age group and continue to strengthen its reputation as a friendly, welcoming and successful club. “The development and success of the club is down to the hard work and passion of a small but growing num-ber of volunteers,” added Masser. “The focus of the group is to deliver safe and fun basketball, building on our long history and maintaining the family philosophy and ensuring the young members are mentored and coached, to work as a team and respect one another.”

Anyone wanting to get involved in the club as a player, committee member, coach or volunteer should contact the Raptors at contact@rossendaleraptors.co.uk.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/8810966.Raptors_are_on_the_rise/