Nottingham Wildcats leader Siobhan Prior has been reflecting on an action-packed summer and is also counting down the days to the new campaign after her return was confirmed by the WBBL Championship winners.

“So far, this summer has been a basketball filled one,” mused Prior.

“It has been really great to see the club thrive on the international scene too, having had five Wildcats represent Great Britain across all the age groups and two others represent their respective countries also.

“It is a continued tradition at our club and it enables younger players to have role models close to home and also closer to their own age to look up to. It’s an identity we are proud of and an identity players’ all the way down to miniballers aspire to be part of.

“As part of the WBBL team, we take this identity seriously and look to set a good example to the rest of the club in this way. Winning is obviously character building for the club, but really it is the discipline, commitment and effort that is shown by and required by the WBBL team that sets the tone for the rest.

“We know that if we take care of this, then everything else will follow. I think for me, the most important thing this season is that we continue the tradition we are building and progress it further.

“There has been lots of progress here in Nottingham over the summer! We’re continuing to push the boundaries of the club and this is something that excites me. I am an ‘anything is possible’ type of person – we’ll find a way.”

She continued: “This will begin in September with the start of preseason. I am really looking forward to having a number of familiar faces back again this year. Consistency is one thing that has helped us over the last couple of years.

“It was extremely important for us last year amidst movement of some parts of the team. We are all already talking to each other about the upcoming season and we all have the same goals.

“This is the part of the year that can also be the most frustrating. We are all working towards the same goal, but separately, in different parts of the world. It would be great to be together already but that will happen soon enough and I cannot wait.”

Prior is also determined that the club continues to challenge for silverware in 2017-18 as they look to secure a successful title defence.

She said: “Our goals at the start of this season are as they are every season – to win each competition available to us. We learned how tough it was to defend a title last year and that will only get more difficult this year.

“The ‘threepeat’ is something on all of our minds, I would be worried if it weren’t, but that is the destination. We can’t think about that at the start of the season though. Taking every game as it comes is very important to us, learning from each one and improving for the next, so we build a togetherness ready for the key times of the season.

“As long as we are growing and learning together, the season is a successful one, hopefully with a number of pieces of silverware to add to our new offices (another one of our exciting developments over the summer).

“I’, looking forward to getting this season up and running – we will see you all out there on the court soon,” concluded Prior.