Butte Daredevils join CBA
June 7, 2006 - Continental Basketball Association 1 (CBA 1) News Release
Albany, NY (June 7, 2006) - The Continental Basketball Association has announced that the Butte Daredevils have officially joined the CBA. Apex Sportstainment, the holding company of four franchises in the Continental Basketball Association including the San Jose Skyrockets, will be operating its second expansion franchise in Butte, Montana for the 2006-07 season. Named the Butte Daredevils to reflect the famous Butte daredevil product, Evel Knievel, the team will call the Butte Civic Center home.
This marks the return of the CBA to Montana. In the 1982-83 season the League hosted the Montana Golden Nuggets and the Billings Volcanos, with the Golden Nuggets making its way to the CBA Finals. The Golden Nuggets were coached by current Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl.
"We're proud to announce our expansion team in Butte. The city has a great potential for pro basketball, and we're very pleased to be working with Bill Melvin and the Butte Civic Center," said Joe Clark, managing partner for Apex. "With the support of the people of Butte and the surrounding communities, we hope to grow into a very successful franchise and bring home many CBA championships to Butte."
"We're very happy to have a CBA professional basketball team call the Civic Center home. We look forward to working with Apex and the Butte Daredevils to help make this as successful as possible," commented Bill Melvin, Manager of the Civic Center.
Apex is no stranger to building championship teams, as their first franchise, the San Jose Skyrockets, finished their inaugural season with a league-best 31-6 record, winning the Ron Boone Division championship as well as the Western Conference championship in the American Basketball Association (ABA) last season. "Our philosophy is based on building a family-oriented team atmosphere both on and off the court, thereby creating a nurturing environment that help foster success in all our franchises. We look forward to developing quality players, coaches, and front office staff and help propel them into their successful careers," said James Hasegawa, Executive Vice President of Apex. Indeed, family ties run strong in the organization as James' sister, Kazumi Hasegawa, serves as the President of the organization. "We have selected our first player in Butte as Matt Luedtke, and are planning on announcing our Head Coach, Assistant Coach, and Assistant General Manager in the very near future," stated Kazumi Hasegawa. The Assistant General Manager will be a local prominent figure who will run the day-to-day operations of the franchise and report to Clark, the General Manager of all the franchises under Apex.
"We are elated to have the Butte Daredevils on board for the 2006-07 season," said CBA Director of Operations Dennis Truax. "The Apex Sportstainment group decided that Butte will make a great place for a CBA franchise and I couldn't agree more. The civic center is a great place to play, the city is enthusiastic about the team, and ownership group is outstanding. This is truly a win win situation for everyone involved. We are glad to be back in the great state of Montana and are excited about the upcoming season in Butte with the Daredevils."
"This is the first step in our expansion plans for the 2006-07 season," said CBA Consultant Ricardo Richardson. "We are happy to be in Butte and we feel that this is but the first of many new expansion teams that we will be announcing before our July 1 expansion deadline for the season. Things are moving forward and we are happy about the future expansion possibilities in the CBA."
The CBA recently completed its 60th anniversary season on March 27 with the Yakama Sun Kings defeating the Gary Steelheads on a best of three series. That series featured the CBA's 2006 Player of the Year, Anthony Goldwire (Sun Kings) and the CBA's 2006 Coach of the Year, Jaren Jackson (Steelheads).
Continental Basketball Association 1 Stories from June 7, 2006
- Butte Daredevils join CBA - CBA 1
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