Successful season for Nenagh Warriors Basketball

Another successful basketball season for Nenagh Warriors ended in recent weeks with the club continuing to go from strength to strength.

The club had seven teams competing in league and cup competitions organised by the North Munster Area Board, with the teams experiencing varying degrees of success.

On the boys side of things, all of our U12, U14 & U16 teams competed in Division 1 competitions. North Munster is an extremely competitive region, with Limerick Celtics and Limerick Lions being two of the top and most successful clubs in the country. Despite this, our teams equipped themselves well.

BOYS

Under 12: coached by Louise Mulcahy and Rachel Sheehan, started the season slowly, losing in their first few games. Slowly but surely the boys began to develop and show noticeable improvement, running Limerick Lions ‘A’ side to just seven points in their league fixture in Nenagh. The boys ended their season on a high, winning their final two games, finishing in fifth place, just one win away from finishing in third. We are looking forward to next season with this team.

Under 14: coached by Rhandy Lumanlan, had a mixed season. Early defeats to Limerick Celtics and Portlaoise Panthers left them on the backfoot for All-Ireland Club Championship qualification in an extremely competitive league. That quickly changed, with a 69-74 win away to Limerick Lions, with Lucas Lumanlan remarkably scoring 50 points in the game. A victory over Limerick Lions ‘B’ soon after, left the team in a fantastic position for qualification. Results meant that their season would come down to a straight knockout match with Limerick Lions in Nenagh. The game itself was a nail-biter with the tension even more palpable when the game having to be stopped on multiple occasions due to a leaking roof. In the end, it was Limerick Lions who won by eight and advanced to the All-Ireland. Most agonising of all for Nenagh Warriors was that Lions would go on to win the 3rd Division at the finals.

Under 16: coached by Jim Gannon, had a very busy season with fourteen games. The team equipped themselves extremely well in a league full of Irish International players. They went on to record double victories against Glen Cruisers, Boru Blazers, Limerick Lions ‘B’ and Limerick Celtics ‘B’ and only suffered defeats to Limerick Lions ‘A,’ Limerick Celtics ‘A’ and Limerick Lions ‘C.’ Reaffirming how competitive the league was, both Lions ‘A’ and Celtics ‘A’ reached the quarter finals of the Premier All-Ireland Club Championship, with Lions being crowned champions in the end.

Under 10: Under the guidance of Geraldine Madden, Kevin Lawless and Josh Madden, took part in fun blitzes throughout the season. We have a fantastic group of future stars in this age group, with the boys matching the opposition closely all year. The future is bright.

Senior: competed in Division 1 of the Senior Men’s League. It was a very up and down season for the men, with many injuries throughout the season, along with many close games. The team recorded two wins against Shannon Jets ‘B’ and Limerick Celtics ‘A’ in Nenagh, while they were defeated in over-time by Limerick Lions in their away game. Several more narrow defeats meant the team finished the season in fifth place, narrowly missing out on the top four play-offs.

GIRLS

Under 12: and coach Niall Farrell, competed in Division 1 of the League. This team started very strong with wins away to Morning Star in Kilmallock and at home to Glen Cruisers. A difficult run of games followed, with the team failing to pick up another win before Christmas. The highlight of the season came after Christmas on a Thursday night in Nenagh. The week previous the girls had suffered a disappointing twenty point defeat to Limerick Celtics ‘B’ but the game in St. Mary’s was a fair different encounter. The game was tight and low scoring from the outset, with neither team able to pull away in a challenging hall to score in. In front of a packed hall, Celtics got the ball with four seconds to go. They managed to get a shot in front the side as the buzzer sounded, which hit the ring but thankfully bounced out to give Warriors a 16-15 victory. Further wins followed against Morning Star and Glen Cruisers, leaving the girls to finish fifth in their league.

Under 14: coached by Patsy Farrell, competed in Division 2 of the league, and faced opposition from Springfield, Morning Star, Glen Cruisers and two teams from St. Colm’s. What a season this turned out to be, with the girls winning all of their league games to be crowned runaway winners. The season got even better, when they took on St. Colm’s in the North Munster Cup Final. This proved to be one of the most challenging games of the season, as all finals should be, but the Warriors showed why they were the league champions, as they pulled away from their opponents to seal a superb unbeaten league and cup season. Anna Gleeson was also named a deserving MVP in the Cup final for her amazing performance.

Under 16: coached by Patsy Farrell & Louise Mulcahy, started the season in superb form, winning eight out of their opening nine games in Division 1, only falling to Limerick Celtics. This left the team in pole position to qualify for the All-Ireland Club Championship. An unfortunate series of injuries and players being caught up in dual sports, saw the teams form steadily drop after Christmas. Despite this, the team grinded out wins against St. Colm’s and Springfield to set up a straight winner-takes-all match with Limerick Sport Huskies to see who would qualify. In the end, Huskies won comfortably and coupled with other results, Warriors finished in third place. To highlight the standard of the league, Limerick Celtics won the All-Ireland ‘A’ Club Championship, while Huskies came runners-up in the ‘C’ Championship.

Under 10: also competed in blitzes throughout the season and we are looking forward to see how the girls develop next season once again.

Inter-Regional Tournament

Nenagh Warriors were well represented at the Inter-Regional Tournament in UL, which sees the top players from different regions compete at U14 and U17 level.

In the U14 Boys, Mikolaj Ledwoch and Lucas Lumanlan were our two representatives. This team was seeking to defend last year’s title but came up short, losing to Cork in a very close game.

We had three representatives on the U17 Girls, with Louise Mulcahy and Patsy Farrell coaching and Katie Shinners playing. This team was stacked with several Irish international players and sailed through the group phase with a minimum of fuss. The team went on to lose to Cork in an intense final, as North Munster finished runners-up in this event once again.

Basketball Ireland Academies

Nenagh Warriors were delighted to have three representatives in Basketball Ireland Academies.

Lucas Lumanlan was selected on the Southwest Schools U15 Boys Squad, the Southwest U14 Boys Academy, and the Munster U15 Boys Academy. Arsenij Gurjanov-Chantemirov was selected on the Munster U15 Boys Academy. William Carew was selected for the Southwest U14 Boys Academy.

Separately, we had six participants in the inaugural Basketball Ireland U13 Academies. Amelia Zarina, Charlotte Hanly and Leah Carey were in the girls academy, while Jack Shinners, Charlie Horan and Mikolaj Ledwoch were in the boys academy.

Sponsorship

The club would like to thank Shane O’Gorman Electrical Ltd. for his sponsorship of new half-zips for our Senior Men’s team this season. Shane has been a fantastic supporter of the club and of our men’s team in particular. This support is greatly appreciated.

Schools

Nenagh Warriors Basketball Club were delighted to see so many of our players gaining success with their schools. We would like to congratulate St. Mary’s Secondary School on reaching the All-Ireland quarter-final of the U16 Girls and St. Joseph’s CBS Secondary 2nd Years on reaching the All-Ireland Series. It is great to see basketball success in the schools once again.

Ireland Team Selection

The club would like to congratulate Lucas Lumanlan on being selected for the Ireland U14 Boys team for the Home International Tournament in Scotland, which runs from 13th-15th June. This is a fantastic achievement for Lucas and his family, and we wish him all the best.

The club also wishes to congratulate one of our former players, Jamie Connor, who has been selected for the Ireland U15 Boys team. Jamie, who now plays for Tipp Talons in Thurles, played for Nenagh Warriors at U10 level and it was clear from an early age, that he like Lucas, was destined to reach the top level.

Summer Camp

Our annual summer camp will run from 7th-11th July in Nenagh College. Booking can be made through our Facebook page, or you can text 0894574711 for more information.

We are delighted this year to be welcoming Sasa Punosevac as Camp Director. Sasa is a former Ireland Senior Ladies Head Coach and has also coached national teams in Britain, Serbia, and Bahrain.

Xabi Arriaga, the owner of Shooters Shoot Academy; Rachel Sheehan, a former Irish International player with over 100 caps, as well as Basketball Ireland Southwest Coaches, Ger & Aoife Tarrant, make up a coaching team that will cover all different levels of players and learners. We are certain that it will be a fantastic week for the participants.