It will be strange to say the least for many – no more so than for the Sevenoaks Suns themselves – to not see Cat Carr suiting up today to lead the Suns into battle as their Championship campaign begins, but with that new era that is beckoning comes a new opportunity, and it is one that excites the team.

Renee Busch, another ever-present for the Suns over recent years, is back with the team for the 2022/23 season and will undoubtedly be looked to as one of the players expected to lead this group to success in the post Carr-era, and we caught up with the Sevenoaks shooting specialist this week ahead of today’s season-opener against the London Lions.

“I’m really excited and thankful to be healthy and able to play again this year. We’ve definitely got a big challenge this year with Cat (Carr) not being here for the first time in longer than even I’ve been here playing for the team, so it’ll be a different year for sure, where we’ll be looking for a lot of us to step up.

“We’ve got some new players, some new pieces – it is early days for us as a group as we haven’t been together for that long yet – so I’m excited to see how we all come together and the opportunity we have ahead of us as a group.

“On stepping up to be more of a leader, I guess you’re never really super prepared for things like that but it is one of my goals for this season so I’m looking forward to that challenge and growing in that way.”

“I’ve got a good feeling, I think we’re going to gel well.”

Keeping everybody waiting with anticipation, the Suns have only recently started to announce their roster for the upcoming campaign and there are a number of new faces in there for WBBL to get excited about.

For Busch and the team, they’ve not long come together as a group to start building that chemistry, but the veteran guard is confident that there is a roster of talent here which can be successful in achieving their goals this year.

“We’re just getting into it as a group. Our new point guard (Araion Bradshaw) has just arrived so she’ll play today and is really awesome, but we’ve got a lot of quality people coming in and we’re going to spend this early part of the season getting to know each other and figuring out our team identity.

“I’ve got a good feeling, I think we’re going to gel well. We do have some chemistry to build with the new teammates, but we have a lot of continuity as well with Julia (Koppl), Judit (Fritz), Janice (Monakana), Milly (Watkins) and more returning to bring that experience and leadership to the floor, with T (Ta’Yani Clark) there as an Assistant Coach, too, so it’ll be exciting for us all.

“Everybody wants to win and we’re no different, but we have more intrinsic goals this season as well that are important. I saw Dan Clark’s interview for Great Britain about ‘loving the grind’ and that really resonated with me, building that bond, sisterhood and who we want to be together, which is going to be so important for us this year, and we’ll figure out those bigger goals as we go along.”

“I’m just excited to get out there on the floor again and compete.”

The Suns go into Sunday’s fixture knowing they’re set for the toughest challenge in the WBBL, as they take on the all-conquering London Lions at the Copper Box, but Busch details how she sees this game as a growth opportunity for the team, and why she’s so excited for the upcoming fixture.

“We know they’re going to be very well prepared. They’ve been in for a long time and played a lot of preparation games against some great opposition, so it is going to be tough for us, but we’re going into it with the mindset of working on the things we want to do for the whole season and figuring each other out for the rest of the year.

“We’re just going to take it as learning – it goes without saying we’re always going to go out there and do everything we can to compete – but most of all I’m just excited to get out there on the floor again and compete, to be honest!

“I was coaching the Great Britain Under-16s girls this summer and I loved the experience, but it cemented a lot of things for me about my playing career. First of all how much I love being on the floor playing, but also the importance of the fundamentals and it has me thinking about the game more.”

You can watch the Suns make their 2022/23 season debut on Sunday afternoon at 2pm live on the WBBL YouTube channel, where they’ll take on Mark Clark’s defending champions the London Lions. Watch the WBBL live and for free this year on YouTube!