Team consolidates with new player Wataru Horie
The 32-year old japanese Center Wataru Horie lately played with spanish team CP Mideba Extremadura and before that he was a teammate of Steve Serio and Mina Mojtahedi at University of Illinois and the Champaign Fire in the USA.
Actually the team from Wetzlar did not plan to sign new players for this season but when the contact with Wataru Horie started RSV Lahn-Dill got to know the fact that Wataru Horie is member of a japanese sports-program that prepares candidates for the national team to compete at the Paralympics next year in London with sponsorships by japanese enterprises who take care of the financial needs of the sportsmen, so they can prepare for their engagemnet at England next year for Japan. Wataru Horie expects to be best prepared for this with the number one team of the european ranking in wheelchair basketball.
The at his left lower leg amputated athlete graduated at College in Education and played in the USA for the Charlotte Hornets, Champaign Fire and the University of Illinois where he won the NWBA-title in 2010.
„Wataru is absolutely an improvement for us physically and he is a teamplayer, what fits to us very well“, Coach Nicolai Zeltinger is looking forward to work with his new player and Manager Andreas Joneck summs up:"These circumstances almost forced us to sign with Wataru who is for us an experienced player practically at no charge. This seems quite like a christmas-present ahead of its time."