Ahead of their pre-season trip to Caledonia Gladiators on Sunday, Eagles Women’s Head Coach Chloe Gaynor gave some insight into how her new-look team is settling into life in Newcastle and gelling as a unit.

“The team are settling in well. We have a great group of humans who I believe genuinely want the best for each other and the team and that has been quite clear from the outset”, said Gaynor.

“We have been doing some team building this week and looking at our values as athletes and I believe it’s setting a strong foundation for the season ahead.

“The team got to compete in a scavenger hunt across the city on Friday and we saw the true competitive nature of the team both on and off the court.

As well as that true team bonding the team have also been putting in the hard yards on the practice court as they prepare to face the Gladiators and Gaynor is delighted with what she is seeing from her charges so far.

“We’ve had a positive week. The team are hungry and excited to get going and have pushed themselves both mentally and physically in learning the system”, the Eagles player-coach added”.

“We’ve seen some real positives, but the highlight for me has been the commitment to task and the willingness to fail in order to improve.”

Gaynor could hardly have asked for a much tougher test than going North to face a Caledonia side much touted for success. She assessed what she is looking for from her team and what she wants to get out of the game.

“Looking on paper Caledonia look like they will be competing for silverware this season”, Gaynor revealed.

“They have Tierra (Hodges) now, who in my opinion, was one of, if not the best player in the league last season and that will absolutely boost their potential for silverware.

“That being said, I view it as a great opportunity for us to test where we are at early in our preparations to see what our benchmark and standards are. This game for us, is all about us.

“About us committing to what we are trying to do, testing out our style of play, our rotations, our identity, and just getting used to being on the floor in a real game environment.

“We have a lot of new players, so it’s about us going out there as a unit and putting on the floor the identity and character we want to start the season with.”

Gaynor mentioned the former Eagles fan favourite Tierra Hodges and the Player/Coach had nothing but good things to say about her former player and teammate.

“I’m massively looking forward to seeing T. She was hugely important to the team and myself last season and I’m extremely grateful for her contributions to the club over the previous 2 seasons”, the play caller concluded.

“I’m looking forward to the duals over the season as she is a true competitor.”

Gaynor is clearly sounding upbeat and positive ahead of her side’s first competitive fixture together. A game where the performance and minutes played will be every bit as important as the result.

Tip-Off at Playsport, East Kilbride is at 4:00pm on Sunday 14^th September and score updates will be shared across the Eagles social media channels.