Kickert's 'Old Boys' Facebook group and rekindling the Kings' history

On Sunday against the Illawarra Hawks at Qudos Bank Arena, the Kings will be acknowledging and celebrating all past players who have played for the club. 

This will culminate with the Sydney Kings Ring of Honour being awarded to Ben Knight. The Ring of Honour recognises players not just for their talents on the court, but for other reasons worthy of recognition consisting of:

The most entertaining
The most courageous
A great teammate
Those who gave back to our community.  

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RING OF HONOUR HERE

Over 20 past Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings players will be at the game and be acknowledged at half-time while presenting Knight with his award.

Former King and now coach Daniel Kickert has been one of the driving factors in organising this event. He spoke with Kings media this week on the process of creating the 'Old Boys' Facebook group and why it’s important to look back on the club’s past.

“The idea of re-engaging with past players happened in the past year or two,” Kickert said. 

“When the player numbers list got put together and when Liam [Cavanagh-Downs] (Intern Coach) put together videos, it made us want to engage the legends of the club. And everyone who has worn the purple and gold.

“No matter how small a role you had, you are still a part of this club’s history.”

Kickert explained while doing tours of other sporting codes’ facilities and arenas, those other sports like the NRL, AFL and the AIS have done a remarkable job of visibly showing their history. He wanted to replicate that for the Kings, especially for a season coming in as a coach with a mostly new and young team.

He stated that the group has enjoyed hearing that their stories and history have been taught to this new Kings group – there are only five people left from the 2020 Grand Finalist team on the roster, Xavier Cooks, Shaun Bruce, Jordan Hunter, and formerly players but now on the coaching staff, Kickert and Kevin Lisch. 

(Getty: Bruce, Cooks, Lisch, Hunter shown from a 2020 Grand Final huddle) 

“We’ve slowly accumulated contacts, email addresses and all those things,” Kickert said. 

“It’s been difficult to do as you can imagine, with a lot of players (over 230) who have been here and many guys who have been all over the world. With a lot of them still overseas, it has been a challenge.”

Kickert said that over 60 past players are in the group. He spoke on the elaborate games of telephone he and the past players in the Facebook group had to perform to try and connect with as many past players as possible. 

“A lot of guys have been reaching out to people and asking them if they had a contact to share with us,” he said. 

“We just thought a Facebook group would be an easy way to find everyone on the same page together, get the same updates and share some in-house stories about their time here.

“[It's] helped tap back into what they've all provided to the club and show that the club cares about them. Acknowledging their impact on the club over the past 30 years. As a past player myself, I’ve played for a lot of teams and it’s nice to be recognised.”

Kickert alluded to how American Colleges display their history extremely well, Kickert was inducted into the Saint Mary’s Athletics Hall of Fame in January and no doubt had some influence on his passion to rekindle the history of the Kings. 

There are limited tickets left for our last regular seaosn game of the season against the Ilawarra Hawks on Sunday, Aril 24 at 2.45 pm in our Starlight game. Get your tickets here.