The Crazy John’s South Dragons’ pre-season is now under way, with the team this week back on court at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre ahead of its 2007/08 campaign.

With just 10 weeks until the Crazy John’s South Dragons’ Round 1 clash with West Sydney, the new-look line-up has hit its straps to prepare for the challenge ahead.

On Monday all local players joined head coach Shane Heal for the first team training session of the new season, a solid two-hour hit-out led by Heal, assistant coach Guy Molloy and newly-appointed basketball development coach Michele Timms.

Later in the day the team returned to the court for its first victory of the new season, posting a comfortable win over the Victorian under-18 team.

The scrimmage saw Heal and Timms pitted against stablemate Molloy, who as head coach of the state side was up against his own Crazy John’s South Dragons charges.

While the return to full training is sure to result in a few sore bodies by the end of the week, the work rate comes as no surprise for the Crazy John’s South Dragons stars who have kept a busy schedule throughout the off-season.

Joe Ingles and Simon Conn (Sandringham Sabres), Brent Hobba (Dandenong Rangers) and Matt Burston (Waverley Falcons) are now just weeks away from BigV finals, Luke Martin this week arrived in Melbourne following a stellar season in the New Zealand NBL, and Jacob Holmes is fighting fit following the Boomers’ recent tour to China.

Absent from this week’s official start to the pre-season are star imports Cortez Groves and Nick Horvath, who arrive in Melbourne later this month, and young gun Shannon Seebohm, who yesterday departed Australia en route to the FIBA World Championships for Under-19 Men.

Seebohm and the Emus will contest a four-nation warm-up event in Spain before continuing on to Serbia to bid for the world title. The Emus will take on France, China and the host nation before arriving in Novi Sad, Serbia for the 10-day World Championship event.

And the search for the next generation of hoops stars is well under way, with young basketball hopefuls this week strutting their stuff at trials for the Crazy John’s South Dragons’ new-season development squad.

The boys are back in town and the new-season is here; sign up to the Crazy John’s South Dragons’ cause and join in the action.