Knox Basketball is excited to announce the re-appointments of Graham Longstaff and Heath Anderson to the senior head coaching positions of the Knox Ford Raiders SEABL Men’s and Women’s teams for 2010.

Under Longstaff’s guidance the SEABL Men’s team is coming off one of the club’s most successful years in history, defending their 2008 SEABL East Championship with an emphatic come from behind victory in Brisbane and then going onto winning the overall SEABL Championship convincingly against the favoured Frankston Blues.

For Longstaff, 2010 will mark his fifth season as head coach of the Raiders after stints in 1996 and 1997 and more recently 2008 and 2009. In four seasons, Longstaff has won three Championships and is the club’s most successful senior coach in its history.

Anderson will enter his third season as the head coach of the SEABL Women’s team who had a remarkable turnaround this year.

After recording just 8 wins and missing out on the finals in ’08, the Raiders finished the regular season on top with 16 wins and just 4 losses and secured a home final win over Brisbane in the semi-finals before being defeated in the Grand Final against the Lady Spartans.

Knox Basketball CEO, Simon Brookhouse was pleased to have secured the services of both coaches for the 2010 season.

"It’s great to have both Graham and Heath back on board for next season. Both our senior men’s and women’s’ teams enjoyed tremendous success this year with the men winning the Championship and the women finishing runners-up.

We hope that both can continue to develop some of our juniors to make the transition into our senior squads whilst maintaining the success that both coaches have produced with their respective teams during their time at the helm," said Brookhouse.

The upcoming SEABL season will tip-off in early March 2010 with both coaches looking to start their pre-season training in December.