ABA's King County Royals name Rick Turner as head coach
October 30, 2006 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
King County Royals News Release
SEATTLE - The King County Royals, an expansion team in the American Basketball Association, have announced the signing of the team's first head coach and have also named the team's home venues for their inaugural season. ABA veteran Rick Turner will serve as head coach and also as the team's general manager. In addition, the team has announced it will be playing its home games at North Seattle Community College in the Northgate area of Seattle and also at Green River Community College in Auburn, Wash.
A veteran head coach, Turner has strong ties to basketball in the Puget Sound area. From 1989 to 1997, he served as director of broadcasting for the NBA's Seattle Sonics, before moving on to coach the Bellevue Community College men's basketball team for six years, including four years when he also served as the school's athletic director. In his first year as Bellevue's head coach in 2001, Turner guided the team to a fifth- place finish in the 36-team Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC), after a nine-year playoff absence for the school.
After leading his team to the conference championship semifinals and being named the NWAACC's coach of the year in 2003, Turner left Bellevue Community College to volunteer with the University of Washington men's basketball program under coach Lorenzo Romar for one season. In 2004, Turner joined the professional coaching ranks when he joined the Bellevue Blackhawks for their inaugural season in the ABA. Turner led the Blackhawks to the 2005 ABA Championship game, in which the team narrowly lost to the Arkansas Rimrockers. Most recently, Turner was named head coach this summer of the now-defunct Vancouver Dragons of the CBA.
Turner and the King County Royals will kick off the team's first season in the ABA at North Seattle Community College on Sunday, November 12 against their I-5 rival, the Bellingham Slam. For more information, e-mail the team at info@kingcountyroyals.com or visit their website at www.kingcountyroyals.com.
Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.
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