Former Malta international Peter Shoults is Starlites’ new women’s team coach, the club announced this past week.
Shoults, who was on the court as a Valletta Fighters player last season before an off-court injury forced his retirement from the game, now makes the shift to mentorship as he replaces last season’s coach Fatih Dedelioglu to lead the team that finished second in the regular season.
“Join us in welcoming the new head coach of the Senior Women and U23 Women squads for the upcoming 2024-25 season – former national team captain Peter Shoults,” a club statement read.
“He needs no introduction with the local basketball community after winning four Divison One Championships, one Finals MVP award, and one MVP award, amongst other domestic trophies and awards.
“He has also won several medals with the Senior Men national team, including the Gold medal in 2018. The club is confident that Peter’s vast expertise and work ethic will be a key tool for the upcoming season.”
Last season under Dedelioglu, the team started in fine fashion as they won the Women’s Super Cup and their early push saw them take a quick leap to the top spot of the MAPFRE MSV Life Women’s League standings despite falling to Caffe Moak Luxol in the John Tabone Shield final. However, this momentum began to die down and it began to indicate that it would not be their season.
With a new coaching route, Starlites will be hoping to turn things back to winning ways. Speaking to the club’s socials, Shoults said he expects his side to remain competitive.
“I’m honoured to be given this opportunity by the Starlites committee and eager to get started,” he said.
“(I’m) Looking forward to working with some of the best young talent on the island. I expect us to be competitive but since a lot of changes have happened to the roster, we’ll take it one step at a time and build up slowly.
“The objective is to keep on building on our team chemistry and strive to achieve the goals we set out.”
The Shoults announcement was the first ‘good news’ for the club this summer after losing out on three key players –Steffi De Martino, Maria Bonett, and Andie Saliba – who all moved to Hibernians to play under new coach Winnie Buhagiar.
One will be eager to see what replacements, the Naxxar-based side bring in to cover for the three local players.
