The Kent Crusaders have announced the latest additions to their coaching staff, with two highly regarded coaches in Tamas Okros and Billy Beddow joining their staff at their Canterbury High School AASE Academy.
Okros joins Crusaders from Leeds where he established himself as one of the top junior development coaches in the country at Bradford, Manchester and Leeds, producing a number of junior national team players. His philosophy and approach will be an ideal fit into the academy where he will take a significant role focused on player development.
Okros is looking forward to the new role, saying, “I am excited to be joining a well-established programme at Canterbury. I want to play a part in making Canterbury the best programme in the UK by developing players character and ability.”
Canterbury Coach Jesse Sazant is very excited about the appointment. “Tamas will be a huge addition to our programme. Everyone he has worked with spoke so highly of him, as a coach but more importantly as a person. He fits our culture and philosophy extremely well and will make a massive difference for our players.”
Last season Okros coached across the Leeds programme, leading their U16s to the national premier quarterfinals. Prior to coaching at Leeds, he coached with the Bradford Dragons where he also led junior teams to multiple playoffs. Okros is originally from Hungary where he played professionally before starting coaching.
Also joining the staff will be Billy Beddow from Cambridge where he coached at County Upper for the last few seasons. Beddow is a head coach in the regional programme for East region as well as an assistant coach at the East RPC.
Beddow can’t wait to get started, saying, “Working with Crusaders is the next challenge for me. It’s another opportunity to get outside my comfort zone and learn from three brilliant coaches every day. I am aware of how rare it is in this country to be a “basketball coach” by job title and how lucky I am to work with coaching staff like Tamas, Adam and Jesse. I know the level of coaching they will demand from me and I intend to take full advantage of this by making the most out of every day so I can develop and rise to it.”
Sazant is very pleased with the appointment, saying, “We pride ourselves on the development of young coaches with the club and academy. Billy is someone who caught our eye with his enthusiasm, drive and hard work. He is going to be a great addition to the programme who will add real value.”