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Kularoos Plymouth Raiders have beaten off competition from
several clubs in Spain to secure the signature of Gaylon
Moore for another season in the BBL. It will be Gaylon’s
third consecutive year in Plymouth, and the news surely
backs up Raiders’ claims to be serious about progressing in
the league and cup competitions this season.
“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 become one of the toughest and
most consistent teams in the league.”
The re-signing of Moore makes Raiders probably the best
rebounding team in the league and one of the toughest teams
to match up with. 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, Drew Lasker (6.78 per game)
and DeAntoine Beasley (6.4 per game) and the Raiders front
line strength is there for all to see. 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 to the Edinburgh Rocks (before they later
became known as the Scottish Rocks). He then went on to sign
for Worthing in the EBL where he stayed for 4 years before
joining Raiders in 2005. After being in the country for five
years, he took the step of naturalising his nationality a
move which instantly makes him hot property in European
basketball. Teams are tightly restricted on the number of
foreign players they can have, but on top of that are
allowed to sign naturalised players. It’s this status that
alerted the Spanish clubs to Moore’s value to a team and
made them go after him so aggressively.
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’ve still talking to a number of other players about one
spot that we have left on the team.”
 Link:
2007/08 Player Roster |
