While Snohomish County’s International Basketball League expansion team is still without an official home, the Explosion have named a head coach and signed its first two players.
Head coach Randy Redwine and players Ashley Robinson and Antwon Jones take up the first roster spots on the yet-to-be-located franchise.
Redwine, 63, was an assistant coach with Explosion general manager Nathan Mumm with the IBL’s Seattle Mountaineers last season. Prior to that, he spent more than 20 years coaching semi-pro teams in Seattle after a career coaching AAU teams in his home state of Colorado.
Redwine said he appreciates the opportunity Mumm has given him, and he hopes not to go through too many growing pains with the Explosion.
“We’re looking to compete right away,” Redwine said. “But at the same time, we’ll have some new players, and we don’t know what kind of talent we’ll have. Hopefully, we’ll be an exciting fun team and very entertaining.”
Jones, who will turn 28 on July 26, is a Texas native who moved to the south Snohomish County after his freshman year of high school. The 5-foot-11 guard graduated from Shorewood High School in 1997 and attended Edmonds Community College for one year before continuing his career at Skagit Valley College and Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.
He spent last season with the Mountaineers.
“I’m so excited,” Jones said of playing for the Explosion. “I think that the further north you get (from Seattle), the better the basketball is as far as the fans. Everett is one of the fastest-growing cities, and the fans love their basketball. I’m excited to represent Everett.”
Adding to Jones’s decision to switch teams is the fact that his 2-year-old daughter lives in South Everett with her mother.
“I wish the season would start next week because I’m so anxious to get going already,” said Jones, who signed a three-year contract with the Explosion.
Robinson, who shares Jones’ July 26 birthdate but is a year older, led Puget Sound Christian College in scoring last spring and recently completed his first IBL season. The 5-foot-10 guard also played for the Mountaineers.
Robinson is a Memphis native who did not play high school basketball because he had to work after-school jobs to help his mother support their family. He started competing in the sport while serving in the Army and got discovered while playing in a 3-on-3 tournament in Issaquah.
He entered PSCC as a 26-year-old junior after playing two seasons at Olympic College in Bremerton.
“It’s a blessing, after not playing high school basketball, to be playing at the pro level,” Robinson said.
He’s also excited to play in Snohomish County because of his recent history at PSCC in Everett.
“It means a lot because I have a lot of family and friends that watched me in college,” said Robinson, who also works in the Explosion’s sales department. “To have them be able to come out and support me at the next level means a lot.”
Neither player’s IBL statistics were available, but they were not listed among the Mountaineers’ top five scorers on the West Division-champion Mountaineers’ Web site.
The Explosion will announce more signings in the coming weeks and will hold an open tryout later this summer or in the fall.
The IBL is a 24-team minor league that will add seven franchises next season. Snohomish County’s team already has a Web site – www.everettexplosion.com – but a release sent out Monday referred to the franchise as Explosion Snohomish County.
The IBL team is currently in negotiations with the Everett Events Center, which remains the No. 1 option in which to begin play next spring.
Other possibilities include Edmonds, Marysville and Monroe.
“We’re in talks with the Events Center,” Mumm said. “And Snohomish County is very excited to have basketball.”
Mumm would not expand on the status of the negotiations other than to say that he expects to have an announcement by July 22.
Wherever the Explosion calls home, Mumm and Redwine believe the community will take to the IBL team quickly.
“I feel we can be very competitive,” Redwine said. “Our main goal is to make it exciting for the community.”
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