The preparation wasn’t even done in Thames Valley or any of the surrounding areas of London. It was all done and sorted from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Upon sitting down to discuss the upcoming season, Connell was in touch with former Thames Valley Cavaliers forward and Women’s National Cup champion Faith Okwuosa, who doubled up her playing commitments by handling the marketing and administrative duties of the club.
Even though Okwuosa left the club in a playing capacity to relocate to Dubai for work purposes, she still helps out, and Connell still makes regular contact despite Faith being three hours ahead.
“I didn’t even realise that she lived in Dubai, so I now keep track of the time difference if I do need her,” Connell said with a grin.
“However, when she was down in the summer, she brought a real positive element to the team, and everyone was happy to see her, but everyone at the club behind the scenes is excellent. It’s a club where everyone pulls their weight, and they enjoy doing it.
“Faith’s great, and the club is the same too; when I first joined, everyone was really welcoming; she had arranged some of the pre-season friendlies when I was there, and she helped plan the season with us all, too. She loves this club.”
As do the Cavaliers players. It’s one of the many things that attracted Connell to the job after departing Team Solent Kestrels last season. That close sisterhood where they play and fight for each other as a team, plus having a relatively new team to take charge of.
Thankfully, that sisterhood hasn’t left.
“I’ve always liked the style of basketball that they’ve played,” Connell said.
“It’s always been aggressive, very high-tempo, wants to get shots up and play in transition, and when I was coaching Solent, that’s how they were.
“They beat us at their place, and they never stopped playing or hustling, and as a coach, that’s what I like, that high-energy style of basketball, and they want to win at all times.
Undoubtedly, Thames Valley fits Connell like a glove, so much so that he’s brought his wife Jordan in, using her marketing background to deal with the Cavaliers women’s social media accounts alongside her job with Motley Dog Training.
So when Robbie has had a stressful game day, he always knows that he can come home to every man’s true best friends.
“It’s great having dogs in the house,” he laughs.
“I love it, it sometimes does take my mind off things. But Jordan is great; we’ll watch games together, and she actually helps out at the club and does a lot of the social media stuff.
“As for the dogs, it all started when we lost one of our two pugs. We weren’t ready to get a new dog, so we started fostering dogs from different countries like Romania, Spain, Croatia, and North Macedonia. My wife is very passionate about training the dogs and caring for them.
“At the moment, I’ve got three dogs in the house, and it’s part of our day-to-day routine.”
Despite being a new team, the mantra remains, and led by the ever-present Kat Goldsby, this is a team that buys into that winning philosophy.
Last season, Thames Valley were the closest challenger to Endeavour Ipswich Basketball in the league, finishing second with a 17-5 mark, and was one of Ipswich’s three losses of the season.
TVC also faced Ipswich in the 2024 Women’s National Cup Final, losing to Nick Drane’s side 96-90 in Manchester. The Cavaliers fell short of defending the title they had won the year before.
The talented duo of Helene Trailin and Chinwe Iwunze might have departed the club for the Women’s Super League Basketball, but new names such as Mrahsi Karumba-Roberts, Sante Moonie, and Yassin Belle-Mbaye have stepped in and will carry the torch to continue the success.
“It’s practically a whole new team, but our goals are the same,” Connell explains.
“We want to compete; we want to be in Manchester for the Cup and Playoff finals, so our goals are high. This is a talented group here that wants to play, want to compete, and they share that vision that I have.”
But for now, Connell prepares for his next game, assisted by his three dogs of course.
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Words by John Hobbs
All image credits - Flo Alalade
