THE support staff at the disposal of Worcester Wolves is among the best in the British Basketball League.

There are not many other clubs in the competition that have the resources around the team that we have available to us each week throughout the season.

Players have access to strength and conditioning coaches, nutritionists, sports psychologists, sports therapists and physios.

Much of that is down to our partnership with the University of Worcester, who provide students alongside senior mentors.

We’re a professional club and we’re as close as we can be to having fully professional people around us.

They’re a great team to have around and, together, we try to do what’s best for the players and Wolves by talking and listening to each other.

Hopefully, we get it right and the players, who include university students Kalil Irving and Robert Thurman, can go out and perform on the day of the match.

I have spoken before about the role of the strength and conditioning coaches in our preparation and another key aspect of that is the work of the sports therapists.

Darren Cooper is the university’s lead sports therapist lecturer and he has a team who work not only with the Wolves but all the teams across the university such as netball and rugby.

There’s a select few, normally second or third year students, that work with the Wolves and it’s a fantastic experience for them.

Their job is to aid the recovery of players after games through stretching exercises and massages when muscles are tired.

If players need to go back for extra sessions during the week, we can programme that in too around training.

Therapists will massage players before and after a match as well but they are also tasked with looking after their general condition.

Five or six will work with the players on a Monday and on game day there are a few who are allocated specifically to the team and they are always supervised by Darren.

We also do a lot of preventative work as well. We don’t wait for a player to get injured before dealing with them, we do a lot of work to keep them fit and ready to go for the rest of the week.

All in all it fits in well with what we need as a team and for the university in terms of giving these students real life experience.

Meanwhile, we host Bristol Flyers in the BBL Cup quarter-final tomorrow (7.30pm) and fans are invited to come along in Halloween fancy dress.

The best costumes will win a Wolves goodie bag and there will also be chance for fans to have their picture taken against a Halloween back-drop before the game.

Images will then be posted on social media.