Flames sign Dale as injury replacement player
The Sydney Flames have announced that McKenna Dale has signed with the club, as an injury replacement player.
Dale, fresh off guiding Wahi to the 2024 Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa Championship, will replace Flame #161 Mikaela Ruef in the squad as she manages an ongoing knee injury.
“Obviously I’ve had Guy [Molloy] as a coach before (with the Tall Ferns), albeit brief, so that relationship helped with getting this deal done – as I enjoyed my time playing for him,” said Dale.
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“When Guy reached out, I jumped at the chance and I intend to make the most of this opportunity.
“I’m really excited to play for Guy again and help the Flames achieve as much as they can in WNBL25.”
Born in the United States, the now six-foot guard went on to play college hoops at both Brown University and the University of Virginia – before graduating the latter in 2023.
Since then, she has enjoyed stints with the Bendigo Spirit during the WNBL24 season and has represented the New Zealand Tall Ferns in both their Olympic Games and World Cup qualifiers last year,
“I feel I can bring experience to the Flames young group, having played professionally for a number of years now,” she said.
“I’m happy to play whatever role Guy and the staff have for me, be that providing depth and energy off the bench.
“That title in New Zealand was the first in my career, so I know what it takes to be successful on the court and how special that feeling of winning is – which I’d love to do again in Sydney.”
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In a similar vein to adding former player Tahlia Tupaea to the squad mid-season, Molloy is excited to inject a player of Dale’s quality at this stage, ahead of the harbour city side’s finals push.
“McKenna is a great person and someone I trust as a player, as well as someone who I feel, can make an impact on our team,” Molloy said.
“She can shoot the ball at a high clip and is an accomplished scorer, who can complement the pieces we have on our squad already.
“Especially with the amount of games we have coming up in a short amount of time, we feel she is going to be a great asset to the club.”
McKenna is scheduled to make her Flames debut on Friday, January 17 when the Hoops Capital side plays United at Geelong.
Her harbour city side will then return home for the club’s third Pink Hoops double-header on Sunday, with tickets still available here.