On the ball, with new Taylor Hawks chair Sally Crown, general manager Jarrod Kenny, and sponsors Ben and Kelvin Taylor. Photo / Paul Taylor.
On the ball, with new Taylor Hawks chair Sally Crown, general manager Jarrod Kenny, and sponsors Ben and Kelvin Taylor. Photo / Paul Taylor.
Hawke’s Bay Sal’s National Basketball League side the Taylor Hawks will feature in a bit of history with a Battle of the Bays clash to start the new season in 2024.
The Hawks have been drawn to play new Bay of Plenty franchise Whai in Tauranga on March 28, a slightly earlier start than usual because of the expansion with the 11th team.
The start date and schedule were announced late on Wednesday, including the Hawks’ match against Southland Sharks at Pettigrew Green Arena, Taradale, on April 7, the first of what will now be 10 home games, hopefully with better results than when the Hawks needed a near-miracle this year to qualify for the playoffs after losing their first six on the PGA boards.
They proved miracles do happen and made the top 6, with a record of 8 wins and 10 losses, but the Hawks’ season ended when they were beaten by eventual champions the Canterbury Rams in a controversial overtime preliminary semi-final result at the playoffs in Auckland.
The announcement comes along with confirmation that global Hawke’s Bay fruit exporter Taylor Corp will go into an eighth season as naming-rights sponsor in a unique new arrangement with the Hawks despite the hit it, the horticultural industry and Hawke’s Bay took from Cyclone Gabrielle.
Company managing director and founder Kelvin Taylor, a “rugby man” with no previous basketball involvement before entering the partnership amid the Hawks’ dire straits in 2017, said in a message to friends and supporters: “We are reaching out for support so we can continue the sponsorship.”
“Like many in Hawkes Bay, Cyclone Gabrielle hit us very hard,” he said. “Our packhouse was inundated with over a metre of water and silt.”
The scars of Cyclone Gabrielle are still there, but Taylor Corp is determined to carry on with support for the Hawks. From left Cameron Taylor, Hawks chair Sally Crown, general manager Jarrod Kenny, and Taylor Corp managing director Kelvin Taylor. Photo / Paul Taylor.
He said that with only three days’ packing “under our belt” the packhouse was out of action for the rest of the season.”
“We also had many of our orchards flooded, with silt and debris left behind,” he said. “The clean-up effort has been immense and we’re working towards being operational again in 2024.”
He said that despite the situation, the company wants to continue to support the team, and added: “This will be our eighth season as named sponsor and now more than ever we need to be supporting Hawke’s Bay as we recover together as a region.”
“However, this year we need a little help while we get back on our feet,” he said. “We’re hoping as a community we can raise the sponsorship costs and ensure our Hawks are well supported for the year ahead.”
The extra away match, and the introduction of a new Rapid League with matches to be played before each match, with players not on the main-game roster, increase costs considerably and the Hawks are now working on ways to bolster the financial support.
The Hawks have bounced back before, nearly broke and part-way through a losing sequence of 24 games and near-broke before Taylor Corp came to the rescue in 2017.
The Hawks believe Taylor Corp showed such character again at the time of the cyclone when despite its own plight and challenges it deployed its resources, including a helicopter, to rescue people stranded on rooves and save numerous lives.
When the arrangement was revealed it was amid the silt and devastation almost as evident as it was in the days after the Cyclone happened more than nine months ago.
Crown said: “As an organisation, we are thrilled to have Taylor Corp remain a part of our whanau. Their contributions over the past several years have been invaluable, and they stood by us when we needed them most.”
“Now, we return that support during their time of need,” she said.
The Hawks are committed to working closely with Taylor Corp to assist them in raising the necessary funds to continue to be the naming rights sponsor, and believes it’s a testament to the strength of the partnership, reflecting the mutual trust and support between the two entities.
“This renewed sponsorship marks a new chapter in the journey together, demonstrating the power of unity, even in the face of adversity,” Crown said.
They hope to name a new coach before Christmas, the key to putting together a team amid annually increasing uncertainty as more and more players face longer commitments in the Australian NBL and elsewhere abroad before bouncing back onto New Zealand courts.
The toughness of the new season will be highlighted for the Hawks when they play five consecutive games on the road mid-season, including four in the South Island within 10 days.
