Our team has been preparing hard for the Hungarian championship about to start at the weekend since the beginning of August, and the Euoleague tip-off in October is getting close, too. We have to face multiple difficulties during the pre-season, which forced our board to make additional moves.
“A new player,
Shey Peddy, is joining our roster – managing director
Zoltán Török said startingto elaborate on the situation. - With her arrival we might even find a second Yvonne Turner, since there are many similarities between the two players’ career paths and to a certain extent in their character as well.
Obviously, our fans might ask the question, why we need to make a signing in the last minute before the season starts, since we had announced a complete roster months ago.
The reason behind that is that Napheesa Collier’s agent had informed us that our contracted player will not be eligible to join us even from December due to certain health issues.
I will go on by saying that Bri January and her team are performing fantastically, which means that we might have to miss our point guard for the entire month of October.
Well, because of the absence of these two players combined it becamse necessary for us to make a move.
However, the player market these days is incredibly narrow. The change forces us to give up the originally planned structure of the team and to a certain extent our game plan, which which rises a lot of additional questions. We went over what could be done together with Dávid Gáspár, and after taking all factors into consideration, we made the decision to sign Shey Peddy.
It is obvious, that we will have to switch to a much smaller structure, and perhaps we don’t have to explain what a loss Collier is for us as an Olympic champion. I want to mention here, that we signed Collier for the entire season , and from December 1st I still think of her as our player, and we will proceed with her accordingly.
Shey Peddy will join us five days after her last game in Phoenix, and will spend the whole season here.
As I had previously stated it after the Euroleague Women draw, I am asking our fans for patience this season, because our team cannot be ready for the start of the season at all. In light of the events mentioned above, it is even more so.
However, Betti Határ can return to the court soon, but Jelena Brooks’ injury proved more serious, so we would like to be very careful with her. She is currently questionable to play.
At the same time, it is a chance for Dalma Czukor and Alíz Varga! We trust them, because we put a lot of work into their individual preparations.
Out of the players promoted from our talents’ group in the summer Zsuzsi Sitku conviced us the most, so our young talent will be an active member of our senior squad, but other players from the academy will show up on the roster from time to time.
We are preparing for the tip-off with difficulties and setbacks, but with a great deal of work. However, the motto is still the same: Sopron forever!
Sheylani Peddy: A late-blooming guard
Like our managing director mentioned before, the 32-year-old player’s career path is very similar to that of previous Sopron fan favorite Vonnie Turner. The Phoenix Mercury guard was said to be an underrated player, who was “discovered” late in her career. After playing for clubs in Israel, Austria and Germany she made her mark on the international stage in Euroleague with TTT Riga, where she was not only an effective scorer, but also shone at grabbing rebounds and assisting her teammates. She was recognized in the WNBA as the leader of the Latvians, even though Chicago had already picked her in the 2012 draft. She made her debut with the Washington Mystics in 2019, from where she went on to Phoenix. She spent almost 18 minutes per game on court with the Mercury in the current WNBA regular season alongside such players as Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Kia Nurse, or our former players Bria Hartley and Megan Walker.
The energetic Shey, who is said to be a great team player will hopefully reach the same heights at our club that Vonnie did.
Player Card
Sheylani „Shey” Peddy
October 28, 1988
Height: 170 cm
Position: guard
Nationality: American