Levenston looks to start a legacy

Following a trophy-laden season which bore BBL Championship, Cup and Play-Off success, you could be forgiven for forgetting exactly where Leicester Riders were no more than six years ago.

A mixture of poor management and broken promises left the future of Britain’s oldest professional club hanging in the balance, with even some people in Leicester not wanting anything to do with the organisation.

It was the arrival of two key figures at the Riders that set the club on an upward path, both of whom took a massive gamble in taking the task of reviving the club’s fortunes on.

One of those men was Kevin Routledge, now joint-owner of the Riders but a director of the club stretching back to the mid-1980s.

The other was Russell Levenston, the club’s other joint-owner and current General Manager.

Since Levenston’s arrival at the Riders, having previously enjoyed numerous roles with the club now known as London Lions in addition to a marketing role at sportswear giants, Reebok, he has transformed the Riders organisation into a sporting pride of a city that boasts European domestic rugby domination and ambitious Championship football.

Speaking exclusively to UKAmericanSportsFans.com, Levenston reflects on his arrival at the Riders, whilst taking stock of a best-ever season for the reigning BBL Champions.

“I believe in British basketball and I think that if we can get it right, it can be successful,” explains Russell when discussing his motivation.

“At that point, I was lucky enough to have bought a property. I sold that property and used the money to invest into the club. Alongside Kevin Routledge, I am also one of the owners of Leicester Riders.

“I believe in British basketball so much, that I was willing to put my own money, as well as my livelihood, into it. I was 24 at the time and many people were telling me that I was too young to do this, but I believed in what I could do. I believed that I could make an impact with the team, but also within the community by working with schools and creating a player pathway. I wanted to create opportunities for young British players that they didn’t have back then.”

The ambition for a man at such a young age is impressive to say the least. A huge gamble, Levenston admits that he experienced sizable lows in his opening years working with the Riders, but remained focused on establishing the organisation within the community.

“In the first three months of working at Leicester Riders, every meeting I went to was a negative meeting; it was tough,” he reveals.

“I’d honestly come home from days at work thinking ‘What am I doing?’ Everybody seemed to hate Leicester Riders! I simply said ‘This is what we’re going to do’ and I gave the choice of either looking from afar or being part of it.

“We were able to get the council on board, as well as a couple of key schools that have helped form our community programme, which was important because you needed to have a history of delivering sessions to children before taking it to the next level. That, alongside the funding from Jelson Homes and the support from De Montfort University, allowed us to get that community programme off the ground. The key was to get the Riders name out there again.”

In achieving the key aim, Levenston admits that there was one integral element of recruitment that proved pivotal – and it’s an acquisition that remains by his side to this very day.

“The biggest factor was the recruitment of Rob Paternostro as our head coach; he’s been unbelievable,” Russell states.

“Some people could regard him as being a gamble at the time, as he’d had no coaching experience. We saw a lot of potential within him, as well as what he brings off the court. He brings knowledge on the court, but he’s a great character. He’s great with the media and he was somebody we could market the club around, which is important and over the years, it’s been there for all to see.”

Alongside the arrival of the charismatic coach Paternostro came the player-recruitment skills that have seen the Riders rebuild in sensational fashion over the years. Subsequent success brought with it increased crowds as Leicester Riders became the talk of the city once again – but for all the right reasons.

“Performances on the court started to improve and, alongside that, we brought in more sponsorship and started to show people what we could do,” explains Levenston.

“The venue started to fill up and one of the games that will always stay in my mind was the Play-Off quarter final against Sheffield Sharks (in 2010), when Bradd Wierzbicki hit a three-pointer on the buzzer. Everybody was in red t-shirts at the John Sandford Sports Centre and it really made me realise how far we’d come in three years. We started by having capacities of 2-300 and here we were with a capacity in the thousands.”

In the present day, Leicester Riders are now regarded as one of the city’s finest sports institutions; not just because of the team’s success on the court, but its place within the community also.

During an age where football continually becomes disconnected with supporters, Leicester Riders players are constantly coaching in schools and after-school clubs, whilst the vision of fans mixing with players after the final buzzer at the John Sandford Sports Centre is one that displays why basketball is such a special game.

It’s the result of a lot of hard work, and Russell Levenston is keen to emphasise the importance of Rob Paternostro’s predecessor in the process.

“Martin Ford, who was our head coach in that first year, was vital to our development and he deserves a lot of credit, because he did a huge amount of work in that first year,” he says.

“He had the players here and offered some stability, but the second year was where things really got started, after we had put the infrastructure into place both on and off the court.

“Jelson Homes’ support continued when they were able to give us an office and as we brought things through, more people wanted to get involved. A lot of the focus was what we could do off the court within the community, establishing a brand again and linking up with the media; all of which would have a positive effect on the court. Key for us was the following summer, when we introduced an academy at Charnwood College.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

The links remain strong in the community, whilst the expanded Riders academy, ran alongside Loughborough College and Loughborough University, has produced players including Will Maynard, Connor Washington, Jordan Dawes and Reiss Haggith – all of whom featured for the Riders’ senior team last year – whilst continuing to develop the always-improving Jamell Anderson.

But what does the future bring?

Plans continue to construct a brand-new facility for Leicester Riders, with progress being made to a site approved at Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s Grace Road ground.

Already this summer, Great Britain star and reigning MVP Drew Sullivan, Spanish guard Jorge Calvo and forward Anthony Rowe have all committed to Leicester Riders for next season and work is under way to add to a roster which already included Anderson and Washington, who were both tied to long-term deals.

In short, the future is bright and a lot of it is down to a man who, at 24, believed in British basketball. For Russell Levenston, that belief paid off and Leicester continues to enjoy some of the best basketball on offer in the UK.