Tara Murray
The Whittlesea Pacers have welcomed back a couple of favourite sons to lead their Big V men’s division 2 side next year.
Des Radoslovic, who started his playing career at the Pacers, before coaching the youth league side to a championship, has been appointed coach.
Paul Hughes, who also coached the the club to a youth league men’s has been appointed assistant coach.
Radoslovic said the duo were keen to help get the club back to where it was. He said he wouldn’t have taken on the role if Hughes wasn’t beside him.
“It’s good to be back home where it all began,” he said.
“I started my coaching there and took the youth league team to a championship and Paul was my assistant coach at the time.
“The majority of those players are now in the senior program. It’s a good opportunity to coach the guys we used to coach back then, who have Whittlesea Pacers in their blood.
“We’re getting the family back together again.”
Radoslovic said a lot of good things were being driven off the court to get the culture back to what it was and get the stands full of fans again.
He said coaching director Shannon Bodley had put some good plans in place and they could see the foundations of what he was doing.
Part of that was starting to get some success on court as well.
“We’re looking at the bigger picture, the culture of the club,” he said.
“It’s about getting the culture right and a professional respectful culture in the senior group. We want the club to become a destination club.
“We want to add another piece to the puzzle.”
Radoslovic said they didn’t think they needed a complete rebuild of the squad to be back in finals and competing for a title.
This year they finished eighth.
“In the last couple of years we’ve had a couple of interrupted seasons,” he said. “Injuries and things beyond our control.
“It doesn’t need a complete overhaul. We’ll look to top up after hopefully bringing back a lot of the guys back like Jason Dirkx, Brendan Hughes and Ashley Bryar. They’re quality key players.”
Radoslovic said they would look to try and recruit former players back to the club, players with Pacers in their blood.
Radoslovic said they were also keen to ensure there was a big focus on providing continuity between the senior and youth league programs.
He said the two teams would look to work closely together and they wanted to provide somewhere for all juniors to aspire to.
The youth league side played finals this year, with a strong core group of players.
“We don’t want them to be strangers to the seniors,” he said.”
“We want to see the stands filled with juniors.”
The senior men’s team will have try-outs on October 13 and 20.
