Penrith rebuild Waratah squad

THE Penrith Basketball Association has announced the second of its senior representative teams for 2013, with the release of the Waratah Championship League men's squad.

Some familiar faces will be missing in 2013, including Steve Gavrilovic (Bankstown), Luke Griffith (injured), Madol Chol (injured), Rob Crane (retired) and Bruce Wells (retired).

While the loss of such talented players leaves a huge hole in the Penrith program, their departure opens the door for a couple of new faces in Reece Moon and Sonny Zapata, who are both graduating from the local senior domestic competition.

Panthers head coach Jeff Cooper is very enthusiastic about his two novices.

"Reece [Moon] was a Penrith junior representative player and has now decided to make a return to representative basketball at a senior level," he said.

"He can play the two spot [shooting guard] or three spot [small forward], is athletic and plays hard.

"Sonny [Zapata] also plays in both our local [domestic] competition and Blacktown [Kevin Betts Stadium, Mt Druitt].

"Sonny is athletic, can shoot the perimeter shot and can also play the one spot (point guard) or two spot for us."

The talented duo of Ben Kearins and Ben Wagenfeller will also both step up full-time from the Youth League program and play significantly bigger roles in the Waratah team in 2013.

American import Ben Ellsworth returns to the Panthers for 2013 and will undoubtedly be playing a role in Penrith's slightly under-sized front court group, alongside the highly talented duo Emlyn Dodd and Louis Brandt.

Sudanese-born power forward Laat Amat Gak is currently only listed in the Penrith Youth League squad but may also get court time in the Waratah team during the season, provided he can stay injury free.

The full squad is Ben Kearins, Ben Wagenfeller, Ben Ellsworth, Emlyn Dodd, Josh Morehead, Louis Brandt, NIck Kennedy, Reece Moon, Sean Albert, Sonny Zapata, head coach Jeff Cooper, assistant coach Adam Peterson.