Ross Mackenzie

As a young player developing, he would practise endlessly in the school gym 4 nights a week alone or under the watchful eye of teacher and Raiders Asst Coach, Frank Pocock and cycling across Plymouth every Tuesday after school to attend club captain Gary Stronach’s coaching clinic at John Kitto school. 

 

Breaking into the Kanary Kings at 15 years old, the Raiders’ local league Plymouth & District team alongside club legends Tony Watchman and Bradley Niles was a significant moment and would herald the beginning of his journey with Raiders. 

 

Under Frank and Bob Karruck, Ross developed his game locally alongside young talented future Raiders, James Loveridge, Roy Sanders, Gavin Love, Jeff Garside and many other local players, generally regarded as a golden age for players locally breaking into the National Basketball League. Vic Fleming would arrive in Plymouth in 1993 and take the junior players to a new level, establishing the Rebels - or the Raiders 2nd team and taking the group to the Crystal Palace National Championships upsetting the odds to beat Gloucester Jets under Paul Christiansen and go all the way to the Semi Finals. Losing to eventual winners East London Royals, Plymouth Raiders under 18 team was acknowledged as one of the most talented in the country.

 

Under Coach Vic, Ross made a small number of appearances for the Plymouth Raiders Men’s 1st Team including a pre season tournament to Sparta Betrange in Luxembourg and later as Gary Stronach succeeded Vic, into National League Division 1. 

 

Stepping down from Raiders in 1996, Ross continued to remain an active player in both the Rebels and continued training with Raiders until 1998 when during his Degree studies at Marjon, started to finally look beyond basketball to the world of work. 

 

Same Day and timed logistics operator CourierForce, was established in 2007 by Managing Director Ross and would resurrect a formal relationship with Raiders in 2008 as a club sponsor which continued right up until 2017 and a joint bid with Richard Mollard and would see the change of ownership from long time Chairman and owner Bob Widdecombe. 

 

This period of ownership heralded a new start for Raiders and would see the return of Gavin Love as Head Coach, and Richard and Ross’ period of ownership would continue until Feb 2020. Turkish educational business BAU Global and their UK operation MLA College would make an offer to take ownership of the club just as Covid would halt proceedings bringing an abrupt end to the 20/21 season. 

 

Throughout this time, Ross would be diagnosed with a life threatening illness that would result in a lengthy period of hospitalisation from July 2020 with multiple surgeries under the watchful eye of the World Health Organisation right up until recovery in Dec 2022.  

 

The highly controversial and much publicised BAU Global/MLA’s stewardship of the club would mark a turbulent and ultimately disastrous period in the Raiders 40 year history by calling in the Administrators in the Summer of 2021 and working to help install a new BBL owned Plymouth club under the management of their former sponsor, as the failed Turkish owners preferred candidate. 

 

During his own fight to regain his health in 2021 and throughout 2022, he battled to recover the Raiders, the name and the intellectual property rights and ensure a brighter future for the team and set about an 18 month journey to resurrect the club, securing both the unequivocal support of the Department for Business & Energy and the High Court in late 2022. In early 2023, Ross reapplied to Basketball England to re-enter the Raiders, securing the Life Centre as the club’s new home and restoring its position back into competitive National League Basketball. An exciting new chapter continues.