As of today, the Club is now officially on its summer break.

Sadly, the final few weeks of the season were marred by an
increased number of boys and girls being forced to self-isolate
due to outbreaks of COVID within their school bubbles but
thankfully the Club only experienced one direct case and after 10
days of isolation no other team member developed symptoms or
tested positive. Not bad after 8 months of training throughout
the pandemic! So well done and thank you to all our COVID
volunteers who have helped keep us safe throughout this difficult
time.

With the long summer break and the chance for more adults to
become fully vaccinated we can only hope that by the time the
children go back to school in September, some kind of normality
will have returned.

In the meantime, the coaches are taking a well-earned rest (apart
from those coaching at next week’s camp) and we will be back from
Saturday September 4th at BACA for the U14 and U16 Boys National
League teams and from Monday September 6th for all other teams at
Dorothy Stringer and BHASVIC. The City All Stars will be back on
Saturday September 11. Confirmation of all the new season
training times will be posted on our website over the summer
break.

THE NEW SEASON
From September we hope to resume with a more normal 32-week
season lasting from the beginning of September until mid-May with
breaks for just Christmas and Easter. Fees will need to be paid
either in advance for the full season or paid by GoCardless
direct debit over 9 months. All direct debits need to be set up
by the end of September and a 10% early bird payment discount
will apply to those paying in full by the end of September.
Details of how to pay and/or set up your direct debit will be
sent to you in August along with Club Registration invitation.

BASKETBALL ENGLAND MEMBERSHIP
From next season all members must ensure they register with
Basketball England (BE) whether they actually play in a team or
not so this will include all City All Stars and U12 Girls. Annual
Membership costs £8.50 for juniors and £15 for seniors.
Membership includes a free local league licence and indemnity
insurance for you and the club. National League players will also
be required to purchase a National League playing licence which
will cost a further £10 for juniors. Failure to do this by the
end of September will cause your Club membership to be suspended
and you will be turned away from training if you cannot show a
valid BE membership card. Only non-playing members are exempt.

The BE membership portal is currently closed for maintenance but
will re-open at the beginning of August when we will also send
you a reminder.

NEW WEBSITE
Next week should see the launch of our new look website and a
consequence the existing site will be unavailable for a day or
two at the beginning of the week. Once the new look site is up
and running it may also take a few weeks for us to fully
understand its functionality and to eliminate any bugs. Please
bear with us during this time and we hope to have it fully
functioning again by mid-August when we will be sending out the
new season renewal invitations.

NOW is also the ideal time to send us any photos from around the
club that you would like to see featured. Please send these to
admin@brightoncougars.com.

SUMMER CAMP
Due to a number of last-minute cancellations, there are also
still a few places available at the Sussex University Basketball
Camp next week starting Monday July 26. To book you can telephone
01273 678228 or use the link below:

https://onlineshop.sussex.ac.uk/product-catalogue/sussexsport/summer-sports-activities-for-kids/summer-basketball-camp-2021

Booking lines will remain open until the end of today