Doug Leichner, James Vear to Return as GB U20 Coaching Staff

By Sam Neter on April 22, 2014

British Basketball have announced that Head Coach Douglas Leichner will return to the helm of the Great Britain Under-20s this summer, along with Assistant James Vear, plus new addition Andreas Kapoulas who will carry out Performance Analyst duties.

Leichner and Vear helped guide the Under-20s to their most successful ever summer in 2013, gaining promotion to Division A for this year, where they will face off against hosts Greece, plus Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary in Crete, commencing Thursday 10th July.

“We have a great challenge ahead as we move to Division-A of the European Championships,” said Leichner, talking to gbbasketball.com. “I am excited about the staff we have assembled and look forward to the great opportunity.

“We are excited about this talented group and look forward to the selection process. Last year’s promotion has put this group in place to compete on the big stage and we must quickly gel if we want to be considered serious contenders.”

Camp is scheduled to open on Wednesday, 11 June with the player invite list to be announced in the coming weeks. The squad will likely be made up of predominantly the ‘golden’ 1995 born generation, along with 1994 borns.

The team will play preparation tournaments in both France and Spain prior to their departure for European Championships in early July.

Ross Norfolk has been appointed as the team manager, taking over from Mark Lloyd who will continue as senior men’s team manager in 2014. Ross is the England Basketball Regional Performance Centre Coordinator for the East Region and was assistant team manager to the senior men’s team in 2013.

James is currently coaching professionally in Denmark with Aalborg Vikings where he was recently voted coach of the year.

Whilst Andreas Kapoulas, who has been the under-16 England men’s head coach for the past two years, is coaching the Bristol Flyers in England Basketball’s Men’s Division 1.

“We are very grateful for the ongoing commitment by the staff in what has been a challenging time,” said British Basketball’s National Teams Director Warwick Cann.

“We are particularly pleased to retain the core of last year’s successful coaches as we compete in Division-A for the first time. The continuity of staff will undoubtedly help the team’s performance.”

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