The Norths Bears have added Anatoly Bose, Maddie O'Hehir, Patrick Sanders, Sarah Schicher and Emily Simons to their 2022 Coles Express NBL1 East roster.
Bose is a Norths Junior, playing all his junior and senior representative years for the club.
He was a member of the NSW Under 20 State Team that took out the gold medal at the 2006 Under 20 National Championships.
He attended Nicholls State University from 2007 through to 2011, during which he was named First Team All-Conference twice, before starting his professional basketball at the Sydney Kings.
He was NBL Rookie of the Year in 2012.
Bose was named in the Australian University team for the 2009 University Games, and was on his native Kazakhstan’s national team from 2014-2018.
While playing professionally in Kazakhstan, Bose won four Kazakhstan League Championships, three Kazakhstan Cup Championships and was named United League Kazakh Player of the Year twice.
Bose was a key member of the Norths’ Men when they won the 2017 NSW Waratah League Championship.
In November 2017, ESPN named him in 18th spot of the Top 30 Best Australian College Basketball Players of All Time, the highest-ranked of the three Norths Juniors who made the list, with the others being Sam Rowley (29) and Daniel Trist (22).
O'Hehir has worked her way up the Flames ranks, beginning as a development player in the 2017-18 season, before formally joining the squad as a contracted player in 2018.
The young, athletic guard has made a promising impact on the court throughout her first two seasons with the Flames, showing that she can run the floor well and continues to develop her game while being a tough defender.
She was also recognised for efforts after narrowly missing out on the WNBL Betty Watson Rookie of the Year award after dropping an impressive 31 points and 21 rebounds throughout her first pro-season.
O'Hehir was also a valued member of the 2013-2014 NSW Metro U18 and 2015-2016 NSW Metro U20 teams.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Sanders arrived at UC-Irvine after averaging 17 points and 12 rebounds per game in high school.
He was named on the first-team All Big West in his senior year.
Sanders then joined the Sacramento Kings for the 2008 NBA Summer League, then for Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League, averaging 13.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists.
He scored 41 points in their double-overtime win against the Dakota Wizards.
Simons played her junior years at the Bulleen Boomers, where she also played in their WNBL team.
In 2012, she earned the Sporting Blue Award for Most Outstanding Female Basketball Player in the state of Victoria and also earned the Big V Best Defender award.
In 2011, she earned the Boomers' Michele Timms Award for Most Outstanding U18 Player.
After a fantastic junior career in Victoria, where she won gold with the Victorian School Girls team, Simons went to the University of the Pacific, where she finished her career third on the Tigers' all-time field goal percentage list.
She has been a key part of the success of the Norths Bears Women in the NSW Waratah Champions League since joining the team in 2018, being named in the Waratah 1 Women’s All Star 5 in 2020 and 2021.
Schicher first played for Norths in the 2018 Waratah Championship, helping Norths to win their first Waratah Women Championship, and has remained a key element in Norths’ Women’s success over the past four years.
She is originally from Austria and was a member of the Austrian Women U16 team in 2005 and 2006, then Under 18 in 2007 and 2008, and Under 20 in 2009 and 2010.
She has remained a member of the Austrian Women’s senior team since 2012.
Schicher headed off to college in the USA for four years in 2008, first playing at Southern Connecticut State University from 2008 to 2009, then Dowling College, in New York, from 2010 to 2012.
After playing in Denmark for a season, Schicher moved to Sydney in 2014 to attend the University of Sydney.
