The Kularoos Plymouth Raiders are delighted to announce that head coach Gary Stronach has agreed a one year extension to his contract, signaling his commitment to the Raiders for what will be his 24^th year in the city.

Hailing originally from North Shields, Gary was signed from Sunderland 23 years ago and has now spent over half his life playing for, and coaching the Raiders. He’s become well known throughout the country as one of the best recruiters of talent, and is very highly thought of amongst Raiders competitors around the league.

“I’m Raiders through and through,” said Gary, delighted to have agreed to the one year extension. “I love the club, I’ve been here for 23 years now, first as a player and more recently as a coach and director.” Every year since Stronach took over as coach Raiders have just got better and better. “This year really has been a stand out year for everyone concerned with the club. We’ve gone from 9^th to 5^th last year and we’ve been sitting in 2^nd place for nearly half the season this year. For a team only in our fourth year in the top league in the country, that’s pretty good going!”

Gary builds his teams to reflect his own personality – one of hard work, commitment and consistency. The other two main facets of the Raiders play, especially since entering the BBL have been defense and team work. Other than rebounding, you won’t find a Raiders player near the top in any of the statistical categories, but together, the team has performed fantastically well this season, deserving their place near the top of the BBL.

“It’s just been a really great year for us,” Stronach added. “It was disappointing not to have gone further in the Cup and not to have been able to play in front of our own fans here at the Pavilions in the Trophy final, but in the league, we’ve been one of the strongest and most consistent teams. We’re very tough to beat here in Plymouth, winning 13 of our 15 home games so far this season, and if we can improve our performance on the road next year, we’ll definitely be there or thereabouts.”

Gary not only coaches the BBL team, but is very active with the Raiders Schools Coaching programme. He coaches at schools in Cornwall two days each week, and is often seen at other schools and events helping to spread the Raiders name. “Working with children is enormously rewarding, not just for me, but for the club as a whole. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done in the past on racism and bullying in schools.”

In December of last year, Gary received the BBC South West Lifetime Achievement Award for his work and commitment to basketball and sport in the area, and followed this up with The Herald’s Coach of the Year Award for 2007.

Gary finished off by saying “We’ve still got a long way to go before basketball and the Raiders get to where we need to be, and it’s my job to help the team get there. I’m more excited than anyone that I’ll be back next year. We’ve had a great couple of years, but there’s lots more of that to come. I’m sure of it.”

Gary will be signing his contract right before the Milton Keynes home game On Wednesday 16^th April. The game is being screened live by Setanta Sports and they’re believed to be keen to be there to capture the moment as he puts pen to paper.