By Lachlan Onions
AFTER long-serving men’s captain Tom Daly left the Mount Gambier Pioneers at the end of last season, it has brought about a change at the helm, with Kane de Wit to captain the men’s team with Nick Marshall as vice-captain.
De Wit spoke to The Border Watch at Wednesday’s season launch and said he looked forward to the new role.
“It is very exciting,” he said.
“I obviously played under the last two captains in Matt Sutton and Tom Daly and learned a lot from those two.
“Hopefully I can translate that on-court.
After the last two captains attained the holy grail for Mount Gambier with championships as leader of the side, de Wit is hopeful he can leave a similar legacy.
“Both (Sutton and Daly) are championship captains so that is the ultimate goal,” he said.
De Wit also said another goal of his was to “build the community and make the Pioneers what they have always been – a championship-calibre team”.
Captaincy is not the only thing to change for the Pioneers this season, with a new-look team as well as a new home as Mount Gambier now plays out of the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre.
“The facility is awesome,” de Wit said.
“It is going to be different to the Icehouse, it is kind of sad to leave that behind but the facilities are really nice here and I cannot wait to get going for the first game.
“It is an entirely new era – new stadium, pretty much new team, other than Nick (Marshall) and I from last year as well as a few of the young boys which is good.
“It is a bit of a challenge but we have got a good squad, a good group of guys and we will come together on gameday.”
Despite the fact the majority of the men’s side has changed from last season, the Pioneers have still shown signs of their trademark play-style in preseason with several players sharing the scoring load.
“Richo (head coach Richard Hill) says it all the time, not many people in our club average more than 20 points a game,” de Wit said.
“We just win by committing and we have got a good group of guys.”
De Wit was full of praise for the new players who have become welcome additions to the side.
“Everyone has caught my eye,” he said.
“I love my little back-up point guard Austin Shelley, he has been making life difficult for me at training which is good.
“Chris (Seeley), Jacob (Lampkin), Will (Mayfield), Julian (Pesava) and Dylan (Marshall) have all come in and trained the house down.”
When asked what kind of leader he aspired to be, de Wit said he has taken inspiration from Daly.
“Tommy (Daly) has always been one to lead by example and hopefully I can do that as well and lead by example,” he said.
“I think I want to be a leader that does the right thing game-in game-out.
“It is a big challenge but I feel like I am up to it.”
Mount Gambier’s first game will take place on Saturday, when it travels to Sandringham before it faces Nunawading on Sunday for an opening-round away double-header.
