http://www.thepbl.com/2011/07/premier-b ... 12-season/
The Premier Basketball League is excited to welcome its newest addition to the PBL team roster with the Sauk Valley Predators. The Sauk Valley area covers all of Northwest Illinois, a great sports community that loves and supports professional basketball.
Brad Grenoble, owner and general manager of the team, is looking forward to the upcoming season and being a part of the PBL. Our goal is to bring professional sports to our community, allowing community members the opportunity to experience family fun and excitement right at their back door, Grenoble said.
Grenoble brings years of experience in the sports industry to the PBL. Prior to his newest venture with the Predators, Grenoble served as marketing director and assistant general manager to the Southern Illinois Miners (a team out of the Frontier Baseball League). During his two years with the Southern Illinois Miners, Grenoble helped orchestrate the startup of a 25 million dollar stadium for the team. Additionally, Grenoble implemented multiple successful promotions and sponsorship programs.
When we were looking for a solid Midwest expansion, the northwest region of Illinois was at the top of our list. The Sauk Valley Predators fan base comes from a solid sports and community minded area. We are excited to bring professional basketball at its finest to the region, commented PBL President and CEO Brij Desai.
The Predators organization is asking for your help in determining the teams mascot. Those who wish to participate in the online poll should visit http://www.saukvalleypredators.com to vote.
The Sauk Valley Predators are in the process of bringing on a coaching staff and management for the team. All professional caliber athletes interested in trying out for the Predator program should visit the PBL website for more information on the national combine.
The Predators join the Rochester RazorSharks, Team Scranton Wilkes-Barre, the Chicago Muscle, and the Dayton Air Strikers for the 2012 season. The PBL will announce the final teams for its fifth season of play throughout the summer months.
For information about Sauk Valley Predators please contact Brad Grenoble at brad@saukvalleypredators.com or visit http://www.saukvalleypredators.com
For more information about the Premier Basketball League visit http://www.thePBL.com or contact Brij M. Desai at (773) 794-4958
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Wonder why they are using 2 Frost Heaves pics on their site? Especially since it's from our ABA days?
Premier Basketball League Welcomes the Sauk Valley Predators to the 2012 Season
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The Sweeper
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Premier Basketball League Welcomes the Sauk Valley Predators to the 2012 Season
Mean Spirited Blogger #37
Honored to have been the 13th player for the Vermont Frost Heaves game on 2-16-07 against the Maryland Nighthawks.
The ABA is the basketball equivalent of Amp'd Mobile.
Honored to have been the 13th player for the Vermont Frost Heaves game on 2-16-07 against the Maryland Nighthawks.
The ABA is the basketball equivalent of Amp'd Mobile.
Interesting. Anyone familiar with northwestern Illinois will know that there are no large population areas. The largest might be the Sterling/Rock falls area. I wonder where they will play, Sauk Valley College, Highland college? I guess this is a recruit of Tom McGinn since this owner is also from the same area as Tom and is also involved with yellow pages publishing. Has anyone looked in the Quad Cities? No hockey means lots of open dates at the Mark (or whatever they call it these days).
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robster2001
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OSC take note, that it isn't Marion, IL:
Predators GM: Not fly-by-night
BY LARRY BRENNAN
Professional basketball will return to the Sauk Valley in the very near future.
The Sauk Valley Predators of the Premier Basketball League will play a 20-game schedule, beginning in January.
Owner and general manager Brad Grenoble is sure that the Predators can thrive, despite the fact that he was the GM of the American Basketball Associations Sauk Valley Rollers, who lasted just one season in 2006-2007.
Im 100 percent confident, said Grenoble, who will run the team along with his wife Leah, who is co-owner and director of operations. This is a better league with better basketball. All of our games will be televised or on a live internet feed. The PBL is not fly-by-night. Its not like the ABA. Its been around for 5 years, and theyve never missed a game.
Of the Predators 10 home games, the plan is to play them at several locations throughout the Sauk Valley and surrounding area, including Eastland High Schools new gym and Highland Community College in Freeport, with other locations to be determined.
Id like to play seven games in the Sauk Valley, one at Eastland and probably a couple at Highland, Grenoble said.
Grenoble, 36, who grew up in Mount Carroll, graduated from Milledgeville High School, and currently resides in Chadwick, is in the process of putting together the teams staff and roster.
I had lunch the other day with three great players from the area, he said. Ive been talking to a couple former Butler players, and a former Iowa player. I have a lot of agents and coaches calling me.
A national league combine is scheduled for Aug. 27-28 in Chicago. Grenoble said the league has a $130,000 salary cap per 10-player team.
The Predators have a head coach as of Monday when Grenoble hired Greg Ktistou of Downers Grove. Ktistou, a former player at Eastern Illinois University and Carthage College, played five professional seasons in Greece.
Ktistou has more than 10 years of coaching experience. He has coached at Downers Grove North, Hinsdale South, and Downers Grove South high schools. From 2002-2009 he was also the head coach of the Illinois Kings AAU program, which won three state championships and was ranked No. 13 in the country, according to the Predators press release.
My wife and I are very excited to get to know the people of the Sauk Valley area and become part of the community, Ktistou said in the release. We will make the Sauk Valley proud on and off the court.
The Predators already have two mascots, which were determined by online voting at saukvalleypredators.com.
We have an owl and an eagle, Grenoble said. I wanted a snapping turtle. Now people can go online and help us pick the names of the mascots.
Grenoble has been pleased with the online support the Predators are already receiving.
We have over 2,500 Twitter followers and over 2,000 Facebook likes, he said. Thats really encouraging.
Grenoble joins the Predators after a successful stint in independent league baseball with the Southern Illinois Miners in Marion. He was the Frontier Leagues marketing director of the year twice, and the Miners were the leagues organization of the year twice.
The PBL also has teams in Chicago; Dayton, Ohio; Rochester, N.Y.; and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and should add more franchises soon.
Grenoble would like to bring another professional sport to the area in the future.
The ultimate goal is to get a new football league team around here, he said.
Predators FYI
Owner/general manager: Brad Grenoble of Chadwick, former GM of Sauk Valley Rollers
Head coach: Greg Ktistou of Downers Grove
20-game schedule, beginning in January
10 home game will be played at various area sites
$130,000 salary cap for 10-player team
http://www.saukvalley.com/
Predators GM: Not fly-by-night
BY LARRY BRENNAN
Professional basketball will return to the Sauk Valley in the very near future.
The Sauk Valley Predators of the Premier Basketball League will play a 20-game schedule, beginning in January.
Owner and general manager Brad Grenoble is sure that the Predators can thrive, despite the fact that he was the GM of the American Basketball Associations Sauk Valley Rollers, who lasted just one season in 2006-2007.
Im 100 percent confident, said Grenoble, who will run the team along with his wife Leah, who is co-owner and director of operations. This is a better league with better basketball. All of our games will be televised or on a live internet feed. The PBL is not fly-by-night. Its not like the ABA. Its been around for 5 years, and theyve never missed a game.
Of the Predators 10 home games, the plan is to play them at several locations throughout the Sauk Valley and surrounding area, including Eastland High Schools new gym and Highland Community College in Freeport, with other locations to be determined.
Id like to play seven games in the Sauk Valley, one at Eastland and probably a couple at Highland, Grenoble said.
Grenoble, 36, who grew up in Mount Carroll, graduated from Milledgeville High School, and currently resides in Chadwick, is in the process of putting together the teams staff and roster.
I had lunch the other day with three great players from the area, he said. Ive been talking to a couple former Butler players, and a former Iowa player. I have a lot of agents and coaches calling me.
A national league combine is scheduled for Aug. 27-28 in Chicago. Grenoble said the league has a $130,000 salary cap per 10-player team.
The Predators have a head coach as of Monday when Grenoble hired Greg Ktistou of Downers Grove. Ktistou, a former player at Eastern Illinois University and Carthage College, played five professional seasons in Greece.
Ktistou has more than 10 years of coaching experience. He has coached at Downers Grove North, Hinsdale South, and Downers Grove South high schools. From 2002-2009 he was also the head coach of the Illinois Kings AAU program, which won three state championships and was ranked No. 13 in the country, according to the Predators press release.
My wife and I are very excited to get to know the people of the Sauk Valley area and become part of the community, Ktistou said in the release. We will make the Sauk Valley proud on and off the court.
The Predators already have two mascots, which were determined by online voting at saukvalleypredators.com.
We have an owl and an eagle, Grenoble said. I wanted a snapping turtle. Now people can go online and help us pick the names of the mascots.
Grenoble has been pleased with the online support the Predators are already receiving.
We have over 2,500 Twitter followers and over 2,000 Facebook likes, he said. Thats really encouraging.
Grenoble joins the Predators after a successful stint in independent league baseball with the Southern Illinois Miners in Marion. He was the Frontier Leagues marketing director of the year twice, and the Miners were the leagues organization of the year twice.
The PBL also has teams in Chicago; Dayton, Ohio; Rochester, N.Y.; and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and should add more franchises soon.
Grenoble would like to bring another professional sport to the area in the future.
The ultimate goal is to get a new football league team around here, he said.
Predators FYI
Owner/general manager: Brad Grenoble of Chadwick, former GM of Sauk Valley Rollers
Head coach: Greg Ktistou of Downers Grove
20-game schedule, beginning in January
10 home game will be played at various area sites
$130,000 salary cap for 10-player team
http://www.saukvalley.com/
Predators sign Box, two others
The Sauk Valley Predators of the Premier Basketball League signed two players Monday and another Tuesday, bringing their total to five so far.
The Predators signed former SVCC Skyhawk Jeremiah Box on Tuesday. The 6-foot-5 swingman from Rockford also played at Christian Life High School and Emporia State University.
On Monday, the Predators signed Joshua Stein of Watertown, Wis., and Carl Hipp of St. Paul, Minn. Stein, a 6-7 forward, averaged 13 points and 10 rebounds at Maranatha Baptist Bible College. Hipp, a 6-8 center, holds the records for rebounds and blocked shots at Hamline University.
The Sauk Valley Predators of the Premier Basketball League signed two players Monday and another Tuesday, bringing their total to five so far.
The Predators signed former SVCC Skyhawk Jeremiah Box on Tuesday. The 6-foot-5 swingman from Rockford also played at Christian Life High School and Emporia State University.
On Monday, the Predators signed Joshua Stein of Watertown, Wis., and Carl Hipp of St. Paul, Minn. Stein, a 6-7 forward, averaged 13 points and 10 rebounds at Maranatha Baptist Bible College. Hipp, a 6-8 center, holds the records for rebounds and blocked shots at Hamline University.
Never a good sign when a teams current poll on its website is "Where should we play"
http://www.saukvalleypredators.com/index.html
http://www.saukvalleypredators.com/index.html
The Sauk Valley Predators added two big names to their roster Tuesday, when they announced the signings of Willie Veasley and Carlton Fay.
Veasley, a starter for Butlers national runner-up team in 2010, and Fay, a three-year starter at Southern Illinois, became the ninth and 10th players to join the Premier Basketball League team, which begins play in January for local owners Brad and Leah Grenoble.
Veasley, a 6-foot-3 guard, was a four-year starter at Freeport High School. Fay, a 6-8 forward from Hennepin, was the all-time leading scorer at Putnam County High School with 2,129 points.
Veasley and Fay join a roster that includes former Winnebago star Devan Bawinkel, former Sauk Valley Skyhawk Jeremiah Box, Elliot Engelmann, Carl Hipp, Joshua Stein, Steven Djurickovic, Shelton Jackson and William Eason.
Veasley, a starter for Butlers national runner-up team in 2010, and Fay, a three-year starter at Southern Illinois, became the ninth and 10th players to join the Premier Basketball League team, which begins play in January for local owners Brad and Leah Grenoble.
Veasley, a 6-foot-3 guard, was a four-year starter at Freeport High School. Fay, a 6-8 forward from Hennepin, was the all-time leading scorer at Putnam County High School with 2,129 points.
Veasley and Fay join a roster that includes former Winnebago star Devan Bawinkel, former Sauk Valley Skyhawk Jeremiah Box, Elliot Engelmann, Carl Hipp, Joshua Stein, Steven Djurickovic, Shelton Jackson and William Eason.
