Mulroy Hoops are off to the All-Ireland basketball finals.
The young girls from all around Fanad, and Milford, Kerrykeel and Ramelton, will head for the finals on Sunday, March 31.
Mulroy will go to play against teams from Mayo, Midlands and LLR (Longford Leitrim Roscommon) and the next day they will play against teams from Clare or Northern Ireland.
Ten years ago Mulroy Hoops began to organize some basketball sessions.
Three years ago Mulroy Hoops began to compete in the North West Basketball league, starting in the Division 2 league.
Wins were hard to come by, weekend after weekend with long trips to Sligo or late evenings organizsng referees or table officials. Technology came with them (‘What would we do without the WhatsApp list?’ Fergal Coll, a coach, says.
“A lot of people are doing a lot of jobs, parents lifting and laying, water bottles left behind, kits being washed, U8s U10s U12s U14s U16s U19s, week after week, game after game, quarter after quarter.”
In the end it came down to a final against Sligo All Stars, a club with five times as many players, a club with professional coaches, with a Super League Team which plays in the top league in Ireland.
Mulroy Hoops U14 girls, having only lost twice all season, had to win one more time.
Sligo had stepped up their game, determined not to end their season and playing in their home gym came out strong, throwing everything at a last chance but the discipline and energy that coaches Fergal Coll and Bernie Gallagher had instilled in the Mulroy girls throughout the season came to the fore.
Mulroy’s dominance told, the hours, days and weeks of training showed and the girls that had to learn by losing now in the 2018-19 season had to get used to winning and one more time at the end of March will go to Dublin.
Whatever happens at the All Ireland Club Championships for Mulroy Hoops, going to the AICCs for the first time, this is a winning season.
