• Home
• News

23 September 2026  3 min read

'We want to be role models' - Sazant confident Bristol's growth will come

The experienced coach was appointed to lead Bristol's D1W side in the off-season and brings a wealth of experience to the Flyers following their 4-14 record a year ago.

An 80-32 loss on the road at Barking wasn't the way Sazant or the Flyers would have wanted to start the new campaign, but the Canadian doesn't feel the result will define his team's season.

"While it was obviously a difficult result, I was really excited to get started and proud of the group we had," explained Sazant.

"We knew coming into the Barking game that with a mostly new team, missing key players and having had minimal practice, it was going to really tough against an athletic and well-coached team. Still, there were multiple stretches of the game where we showed what we are capable of.

"We have really prioritised our culture through pre-season and I felt we nailed that on Saturday despite the difficult circumstances."

'We will grow on and off-court'

With the D1W season being a marathon rather than a sprint, the loss still represents just one game out of the Flyers' 22 for the season.

Next up are another newly promoted side in East London Phoenix, who are somewhat of an unknown quantity having yet to get their own season underway.

Regardless of opposition though, Sazant feels his side should be much more competitive in the coming weeks.

"We are hoping to have much closer to our full team this week," he said.

"Flo Ward and Nuri Calderon are both really important to us and add a lot, with their play, leadership and energy.

"With the way everyone has bought into culture, I'm confident we will grow significantly on and off-court, and the results will follow.

"We know that it is going to be tough though as the level of play is really good. A lot of teams have added strong players to their core groups and there are so many good coaches across the league.

"We know that to be competitive in this league, we will need to play very good basketball as week after week there will be strong opposition."

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Bristol Flyers (@bristolflyers)

On court results are important, but Sazant's new role encompasses more than just wins and losses.

Also working as the Flyers men’s first team performance analyst alongside Andreas Kapoulas, Sazant will be responsible from bringing some stability to the women's programme and ensuring the senior set-up is able to get the best from Bristol's brightest prospects.

The club has a WEABL programme via SGS College, plus teams in the Jnr. NBL. Strengthening that pathway from bottom to top is therefor a priority.

"Our number goal once I was appointed was to establish a culture around togetherness, professionalism and toughness to the group," he added.

"We want to be role models that the girls in the club can look up to and aspire to be part of the women's team.

"Having some former Flyers like Emily Short and Flo Ward return has also been instrumental in this.

"Bristol has produced so many good junior female players over the year and we want to celebrate that."

More about the NBL

Main image credit - Bristol Flyers