Defending Israeli League Champions Elitzur Ramla introduced the 2024-25 team to its fans at an open training session on Tuesday night. Led by new coach Muja Thaçi and returning captain and last season’s MVP Eden Rotberg, the team includes Jennie Simms, Tal Lev, Ofer Kirshtein, Tslil Vaturi, Ofir Lavy, Patricia Bura (Croatia), Alexis Prince (USA) and Theresa Plaisance (USA).

What is now an annual tradition, it was an opportunity for the fans to meet the players before the team starts its defense of the Israeli League Championship and looks forward to its return to the EuroCup after being absent last season due to the war with Hamas, which broke out on the eve of the season.

Although the team has started preparations for the season ahead, there are still pieces missing – with Prince and Plaisance still yet to land in Israel and the team looking to add another player with the jam-packed schedule ahead.

“First of all, we’re missing two players – most probably one more, we’re trying to find another player for the EuroCup – but the other two players are signed, Theresa Plaisance and Alexis Prince,” Thaçi said. “We expect Prince in 2-3 days, but as the contract is signed with Theresa, she will be here on the 25th or 26th of September – we were not sure if we would be playing EuroCup because of the situation in Israel, so we signed the contract with the players later.

“We are also trying to find someone at the 5 position because we have 12 games in 32 days, which is like an NBA schedule and we don’t have a 10-player rotation to rest the players, so we really need one more player.”

The whole team, from the management to the coaching staff to the players, showed their appreciation to the fans who came to show their support, with them making the time to take photos, shake hands and throw passes with the faithful who turned up.

“First of all, I’m very excited and respectful and I appreciate they have come here to boost us, to give us a little bit of motivation,” Thaçi said of the fans who came to the open training. “Even though we are already motivated, we want to move forward to defend everything we can and take whatever we can take this year. We tried to build the best team, but without hard work we cannot win anything, so now we have to do the hard work.”

Ramla starts its European campaign against Kibirkstis Vilnius in Lithuania on October 7 and its Israeli League season at home again Bnot Petah Tikvah a week later on October 14.