In exciting news for the Castec Rural Pioneers, the Mount Gambier based club has re-signed promising 22-year-old Nick Marshall.
Marshall had a very successful debut season with the Pioneers in 2021, playing solid minutes in all matches.
He averaged 16.61 points per game with a 45.98% success rate shooting from the field together with a valuable six rebounds per game.
Such is the promise shown by Marshall that he currently is a contracted development player with the Adelaide 36ers and has had court time in two recent matches in the 2021/22 NBL.
The Castec Rural Pioneers head coach Richard Hill has expressed his delight at having Nick return to the Pioneers in 2022.
“Nick’s improvement and talent has been recognised by the 36ers with him deservedly being signed as a development player for the 2021/22 season,” he said.
“Nick has a great attitude and work ethic, and I expect he will continue to improve and provide us with size, versatility and high-level talent on the wing.”
Even in the aftermath of the news the 36ers were snapping up Marshall for the current NBL season Hill was always confident of retaining the talented youngster when speaking with the SE Voice recently.
He said it has been a pleasure watching him lift his game to the top level.
“He was really good, I identified him in the off season last year, he was a train on with 36ers and came down,” he said.
“He started pretty slowly but he was pretty darn good.
“He had a really good season for us even though we only played a few games, and there’s a still a significant amount of improvement in him.
“He played for the 36ers against Cairns on Sunday in the Blitz, he had good minutes and played pretty well.”
Earlier in the season Adelaide 36ers assistant coach Jamie Pearlman liked what he saw from the local talent.
“Nick brings a great work ethic and a focussed mental approach to training and games,” he said.
“He has great size for a wing as well as being a tremendous athlete.
“We have been impressed with his pre-season performance and strongly believe he is ready to contribute in the NBL when called upon.”
The Castec Rural Pioneers and the OneFortyOne Pioneers will commence their 2022 NBL1 South campaigns in April 2022 with more signings to come.
