Meet the Team!
Laura is our CDO - club development officer. This post was intially funded with the support of SportScotland grants and when they ended, the club continued the important post.
As well as the CDO duties, Laura is and now head of Coaching and Girls and Womens Head Coach. She holds UKCC Level 2 Coaching Award. She was previously Coach at Ardrossan Academy Basketball School of Sport. Laura had the privilege of being Scotland Assistant Coach U15 2015/16 and Scotland Assistant Coach U14 2016/17.
Basketball Background: Laura comes from a large family of several generations of basketball players. She grew up in Arkansas where she started playing basketball at 10, and despite wanting to be a centre, she played at the point guard position throughout high school and college at UofA Morrilton. Was awarded "Miss Freshman of the Year", " Most Assists" and "Defensive Player of the Year" twice. After college Laura played locally and got into coaching when asked to assist at local high school summer camps. After moving to Scotland in 2004 she began playing for the local SR Women's team until it dissolved. Laura and her husband, Alan, started a girl's team in Ayr when their daughter wanted to began playing basketball and found that there were no girl's teams in Ayrshire. Their team was adopted by Ayr Storm Basketball Club shortly after and thus began the club's youth section. Laura has coached the girls' teams at Ayr Storm since. She is currently employed as the North Ayrshire Basketball Development Officer with the Ardrossan Academy Basketball School of Sport. Her favourite team is the Arkansas Razorbacks. Her favourite time of year is March even though she gets very little sleep, both thanks to March Madness. Her favourite past players are Michael Jordan and Larry Bird and her favourite current players are Maya Moore and Anthony Davis.
Danny started playing basketball in high school (Park Mains) around 1980 and went on to play at University of Glasgow, Tameside (Manchester league), Magnum/Cunningham Kings before moving to Ayr where he worked for Digital and was a founding member of the factory team Digital BC that would morph into Ayr Storm. He is a UKCC and BasketballScotland Level 2 qualified coach as well as a BasketballScotland L2 qualified referee and L2 table official.
He saw there were players at the Basketball Ayrshire Development Group Friday night sessions that once they reached the max age for that, had no where to continue their basketball - so took the lead in adding a male youth section to the club.
He along with Alan coached the first male sides in the club to play in the Scottish National compettions and they progressed through central development leagues into division 2 and finally division 1.
Currently his role at the club is head coach of the U16men squad who have teams that compete in the SBC and SLBA. He is also a member of our club management committee, in the post of Treasurer as well as our national league secretary.
Supports SLB Caledonia Gladiators, NBA Houston Rockets and a soft spot for Sacramento Kings and NCAA University of North Carolina.
Alan is a key contributor to the women's section helping to create successful teams year after year as a co-coach with Laura. Alan's voice in the club is always creating opportunities for Ayr Storm to improve its basketball experience for the kids in the programme. Alan is also a vital part of our committee operations.
He will talk basketball to you when ever you want, but will underplay his involvement in both the work he does with the girls and senior women’s squads and his role in getting our male youth squads involved on the national stage.
David is our resident off duty doctor who has while playing for the men’s squad was persuaded to get involved in the BADG sessions at the Citadel - and has been involved in youth basketball through Ayr Storm ever since. He has coached boys and girls squads ant various age groups in the RDLs and SLBA.
David is another of our UKCC qualified coaches and currently coaches one of the U12boys sections. He is as a L2 table official regularly seen at the weekend fixtures helping on shot clock duty or another table officiating position.
David is one of the clubs trustees and hold the post of chair as well as being our Child Protection officer.
Steven began playing basketball at the age of 15, where he commenced the first Kyle academy basketball team which entered the local school competition and won.
Then he attended Troon for one year at the age of 17 where he played national league U18s, before playing at Glasgow University for a few years. Steven then joined digital basketball club at 19, and has played for the senor men since.
Steven is currently head of the coaching team of the senior men’s section who have three squads competing in the SLBA leagues. Stevie is a Level 2 qualified coach and coaches the 1st team who play in division 1. He still plays for the 1st team, so is actually a player coach still.
The NBA Team Steven supports mostly is Chicago bulls but he also likes Boston Celtics.
