A lecturer at the University of Worcester has been appointed the Assistant Coach of the Wales Senior Men's Basketball squad ahead of an international competition.
Alex Radu joins the team as they prepare for this month's European Championship of Small Countries in Moldova, and is hoping to involve the students from the University, past and present.
Alex, who is also Assistant Coach to the Worcester Wolves basketball team, based at the University of Worcester Arena, said: "We are trying to maximise the time that we have available as a team and we already had a few two-day camps and several friendly games too.
"It is pleasing to see the progress we are making when playing and training together as a team after each camp."
The Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching Basketball has experience of coaching at European level after two years spent as Assistant Coach of Romania Senior Women's national team and participation at Eurobasket 2015.
The Welsh team, led by Latvian Head Coach Kristaps Petrovs, will play its first game of the championships in Chisinau, Moldova, against Andorra on June 27.
As part of Group B they also face Armenia and Moldova.
Teams, which also include Ireland, need to finish in the top two places to give them the chance to compete in the semi-finals.
Alex said he hopes to see current and previous University of Worcester students amongst the 12 players who will be eventually selected to make the trip to Moldova.
"It is great to work with players like Sam Roberts, Ben Potts and Damian Cope who all are, or were, part of the University of Worcester basketball programme," he said.
"We have some pretty tough opponents in our group considering that Andorra are current champions and that Moldova has a Russian influence in their style and in their approach to games.
"Our attention as coaching staff is to create a competitive team that plays a European, modern style which will create problems to whoever we will play against."
Above photo courtesy of Ciprian Petcut.