Kirchheim Knights

Kirchheim Knights
Founded	2006
Hall	City center sports hall (1800 seats)
Homepage	http://www.kirchheim-knights.de/
executive Director	Christoph Schmidt
Trainer	Igor Perović
league	2nd Bundesliga ProA 2018/19: 12th place
home Away

The Kirchheim Knights are a German basketball team based in Kirchheim unter Teck . The team was spun off into a corporation in 2006 when the parent club VfL Kirchheim / Teck , which had existed since 1881, became part of the 2nd Basketball Bundesliga South.

Beginnings and sporting development

Basketball in Kirchheim goes back to a game on March 9, 1957 between a selection of the 7th US Army and the Göppingen gymnastics club. It took place in front of almost 1000 spectators as part of an indoor sports festival, at which Württemberg top-class sport was shown in various disciplines. The basketball department of VfL Kirchheim developed from the first beginnings with six players at the very first Kirchheimer basketball training session, also benefiting from further indoor sports festivals in 1958 and 1959 with basketball that is well worth seeing.

In 1960 four youth teams took part in the round games. From 1959 to 1963, the B-Jugend was five times Württemberg champion. Due to the obvious strength of the game, the association at that time divided VfL into the national league of active players. In 1965 promotion to the Association League was achieved. After the commitment of the American William "Bill" Brack, he was promoted to the southern German league in 1968/69. In the following years several ups and downs followed, until 2006 the promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga South succeeded. In September 2006, VfL Kirchheim Knights GmbH was founded to operate the professional team.

In the first year of the second division, the qualification for the newly created 2. Bundesliga ProB was barely made. Under the Bundesliga experienced coach Pat Elzie , he was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga ProA in 2008 . At the end of the season, the team was able to prevail against the competitor Munich Basket . In the ProA , the former coach Branislav Ignjatovic from Langen took over the training after Elzie left the team for Bremen Roosters . The Knights were able to establish themselves right away in the front midfield and reached a fifth place in the table in their first ProA season. In the following years, too, it was consistently placed among the top five.

In the 2011/2012 season, the Kirchheim Knights took second place after the main round and thus moved into the playoffs, which were held for the first time in the ProA. In the first best-of-five series in the quarter-finals, the ETB Wohnbau Baskets Essen were defeated 3-0. Also in the semifinals the Knights managed the big surprise with a 3-0 win over the BBL relegated Giants Düsseldorf , so that the championship could be played in the final against MBC Weißenfels. In the first and second leg they were narrowly defeated. The associated athletic promotion to the highest German league was denied due to the lack of framework conditions.

The 2012/2013 season, on the other hand, was very sobering for the Knights. At no time could the team build on the good 2011/2012 season and they were in a relegation battle for the entire season. On the last day of the game, the formal relegation from the ProA to the ProB was sealed by a 92:99 defeat against BG Göttingen . Since the losing finalist of the ProB play-offs, the Schwelmer Baskets , had not applied for a license for the ProA, the Knights could remain in the ProA.

In the 2012/13 season , the Baskets even achieved promotion rights as the inferior finalists of the play-offs, but were unable to exercise this right due to insufficient infrastructure due to insufficient infrastructure due to a lack of application for a license for the ProA .

Following the 2013/14 season, coach Ignjatovic left VfL after a six-year term to move to league rivals Heidelberg. The American Michael Mai was signed as his successor . Mai led the team to the ProA playoff semi-finals in spring 2017, after the end of the season he left the club at his own request. The Finn Anton Mirolybov was introduced as the new head coach at the end of June 2017. After one season, Mirolybov and the Kirchheimer ended their cooperation in May 2018 by mutual agreement. Mirolybov's successor was the Spaniard Mauricio Parra . Parra was replaced by David Rösch shortly before Christmas 2019 after the Spaniard had been absent due to illness since the beginning of December. He had been on sick leave for an indefinite period. After Parra's failure, sporting director Christoph Schmidt and junior coach Brian Wenzel initially took over the team management. Rösch resigned from the position after the 2019/20 season, and Igor Perović became the new man on the bench .

The placements in the 2nd basketball league ProA

• 5th place in the 2008/2009 season with 18:12 wins
• 5th place in the 2009/2010 season with 19:11 wins
• 4th place in the 2010/2011 season with 16:12 wins
• 2nd place in the 2011/2012 season with 18:10 wins and reaching the playoff finals
• 15th place in the 2012/2013 season with 10:20 wins and formal relegation to the ProB
• 10th place in the 2013/2014 season with 15:15 wins
• 11th place in the 2014/2015 season with 12:18 wins
• 3rd place in the 2015/2016 season with 22: 8 wins (elimination in the playoff quarter-finals)
• 4th place in the 2016/2017 season with 22:10 wins (elimination in the playoff semi-finals)
• 9th place in the 2017/2018 season with 15:15 wins
• 12th place in the 2018/2019 season with 14:16 wins
• 11th place in the 2019/2020 season with 1:15 p.m. wins (early end of the season due to the spread of COVID-19 )

Squad

The Kirchheim Knights squad for the 2019/2020 season
Attention: The squad information is out of date! (current season: 2020/2021)
player No. Nat. Surname birth size info Last club Guards ( PG , SG ) 5 Nico Brauner 11/01/1994 187 cm Saint Mary's University Halifax 6th Tiziano Palmieri 09/12/2001 180 cm TSG Reutlingen 21st Mirsad Haziri 02/21/2001 195 cm Team Ehingen Urspring 22nd Kevin Eduardo Wohlrath 02/15/1995 197 cm Baskets Oldenburg 32 Jalan Taraune McCloud 06/13/1995 180 cm Bristol Flyers 40 DaJuan Marquise Count 12/16/1992 185 cm Forwards ( SF , PF ) 10 Brian Butler 11/07/1991 196 cm scanplus baskets Elchingen 11 Tim Koch 02/01/1989 196 cm MHP giant Ludwigsburg 19th Till Pape 12/10/1997 204 cm Weißenhorn young stars 44 Mitchell Lee Hahn 10/23/1995 203 cm University of Nebraska Omaha Center ( C ) 12 Keith Rendleman December 19, 1990 203 cm 15th Andreas Christian Nicklaus 08/20/1999 217 cm MTV Stuttgart 47 Andreas Kronhardt 08/27/1989 204 cm Crailsheim Merlins Trainer Nat. Surname position David Rösch Trainer swell Team homepage League homepage Status: December 2019

Change 2019/2020

Accesses

• Nico Brauner (Saint Mary's University Halifax)
• Brian Butler (scanplus baskets Elchingen)
• Till Pape (Weißenhorn Youngstars)
• Jalan Taraune McCloud (Bristol Flyers)
• Mitchell Lee Hahn (University of Nebraska Omaha)

Departures

• Erik Gunnar Durham

Former

Important players

• Konstantin Karamatskos , Crailsheim Merlins , ProA
• David McCray , Artland Dragons , BBL
• Timothy Burnette , BSC Raiffeisen Fürstenfeld , ÖBL
• Adam Baumann , career ended
• Gordon Scott , career ended
• Ryan DeMichael , career ended
• Benjamin Lischka , Crailsheim Merlins
• Benjamin Beran, career ended
• Radivoj Tomasevic , career ended

Trainer

Trainer (since 2003)

Term of office	Surname
2003-2006	Theo Leftakis
2006–02 / 2007	Pasko Tomic
02 / 2007-2008	Pat Elzie
2008-2014	Branislav Ignjatovic
2014-2017	Michael May
2017-2018	Anton Mirolybov
2018–12 / 2019	Mauricio Parra
12/2019–05/2020	David Rösch
since 07/2020	Igor Perović

Structures

Venue

The home venue is the Stadtmitte sports hall in Kirchheim, which has a capacity of 1,600 spectators.

Cooperations

The Knights cooperate in promoting young talent with the basketball department of the parent club VfL Kirchheim . There are still eight youth and four men's teams there. There was another cooperation with the Bundesliga club Ludwigsburg to provide young players with a Bundesliga perspective with the help of double licenses . The players who benefited from this collaboration included Jonathan Maier , Philipp Heyden and Tim Koch , among others . As part of the cooperation with Ludwigsburg, the Kirchheim Knights were members of the BBA Basketball Academy .

In the spring, the Kirchheimers agreed on a cooperation in the youth sector with MTV Stuttgart and BV Hellas Esslingen in order to jointly aim for participation in the youth basketball league and thus meet a licensing requirement of the 2nd Bundesliga ProA.

At the end of May 2018, the expansion of the cooperation with MTV Stuttgart was announced: It was agreed to equip players with double licenses in order to be able to use them both in Kirchheim in the second division and in Stuttgart in the regional division.

Fan clubs

The Kirchheim Squires have been supporting the team since 2005 . The fan club has grown to over 100 members. Further supporters are organized in the Kirchheim fan club of the VfB Stuttgart Rot-Weiß-Leberkäs football club . On average, the home games are seen by 1,100 spectators.

Web links

• Homepage of the Kirchheim Knights
• Homepage of the Kirchheim Squires fan club

swell

1. ↑ VfL Kirchheim Knights GmbH • Creditworthiness • Commercial register • Evaluation | HRB 721103. Retrieved April 1, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Accolade for Michael Mai - Sport - Teckbote . ( teckbote.de [accessed January 30, 2017]).
3. ↑ Kirchheim Knights 2017/2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Kirchheim Knights 2017/2018 News. Retrieved June 6, 2018 . 
5. ↑ 2. Basketball Bundesliga | Knights and Anton Mirolybov end their collaboration. Retrieved June 6, 2018 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Kirchheim Knights 2017/2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Knight with a new head coach. In: kirchheim-knights.de. December 23, 2019, accessed December 24, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Bernd Köble: Suddenly headless. In: The Teckbote. December 9, 2019, accessed December 24, 2019 . 
9. ↑ David Rösch stops in Kirchheim. Retrieved July 10, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Igor Perovic becomes the new Knights coach. In: 2. Basketball Bundesliga. Retrieved on July 10, 2020 (German). 
11. ↑ Table ProA. In: 2. Basketball Bundesliga. Retrieved on July 10, 2020 (German). 
12. ↑ ^{a b c} BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga | Squad. Accessed December 31, 2019 (German). 
13. ↑ ^{a b} BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga | Squad. Accessed December 31, 2019 (German). 
14. ↑ BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga | Squad. Accessed December 31, 2019 (German). 
15. ↑ BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga | Squad. Accessed December 31, 2019 (German). 
16. ↑ Homepage VfL Kirchheim, Teams ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 29, 2009 
17. ↑ MHP Riesen cooperate with Karlsruhe - Lokalsport - Teckbote . ( teckbote.de [accessed on June 6, 2018]).
18. ↑ SportRegion Stuttgart eV: SportRegion Stuttgart eV Accessed on June 6, 2018 (English). 
19. ^ Homepage of the youth basketball academy, overview , accessed on February 3, 2009
20. ↑ An alliance for survival - VfL Kirchheim Knights - Teckbote . ( teckbote.de [accessed on June 6, 2018]).
21. ↑ Homepage Kirchheim Knights, Our Fanclubs , accessed on January 29, 2009.
22. ↑ Homepage 2. Bundesliga, audience statistics ( memento of the original from January 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 29, 2009.