IRELAND’S Senior Wheelchair Basketball team departs for the European Championships – C Division in Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday Jul 5.
Together with Portugal, Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Finland, Ireland will compete for one of two automatic qualification slots to the B European Championships in 2016.
Ireland has not competed at this level since 2009. Following ongoing recruitment and development initiatives alongside an intensive eighteen month national squad training schedule, the Irish Team is well prepared with high expectations going into this competition.
Head Coach Jason Kennedy said, “We’re very excited about competing at the C Europeans in Lisbon this coming July. Training has gone very well to date and we have a great blend of new and experienced players in the squad. We won’t underestimate any team, but that said I’m very confident in the ability of our squad and hopefully we can secure one of the two available qualification slots”.
Live score updates can be followed will be available on the competition website http://www.ecmc2015.eu
The squad sees 7 of the clubs represented who play in the Irish senior League and it also comprises of a small backroom team including; Jason Kennedy Head Coach, Team Manager Valene McMullen, Assistant Coach Alan Carron and team physio Chris Cohen.
Further queries Nicky Hamill, Director of Sport – Irish Wheelchair Association, nicky.hamill@iwa.ie 01 818 6422 | 087 945 3836
The Irish team schedule is as follows; (local time)
IRL v GRE Tue 7th 13.30hrs
IRL v BIH Tue 7th 18.00hrs
POR V IRE Wed 8th 15.45hrs
SRB v IRE Thurs 9th 15.45hrs
IRL v FIN Fri 10th 13.15hrs
Final standings matches SAT 11th
The full squad is;
Jason Kennedy
Head Coach/Player
NI Knights (Belfast)
Paul Mc Killop
Athlete/Player
NI Knights (Belfast)
Matthew Rollston
Athlete/Player
NI Knights (Belfast)
Barry Cooke
Athlete/Player
Killester (Dublin)
Michael Cunningham
Athlete/Player
Killester (Dublin)
Joe Hargrow
Athlete/Player
Limerick Scorpions
Tiarnan O’Donnell
Athlete/Player
Limerick Scorpions
Derek Hegarty
Athlete/Player
Fr Mathews
Jason Ryan
Athlete/Player
Ballybrack Bulls (Dublin)
Jonathan Hayes
Athlete/Player
Ballybrack Bulls (Dublin)
Pat O’Neill
Athlete/Player
Swifts Left Bank (Kilkenny)
Keith Connolly
Athlete/Player
Titans Galway
Valene McMullen
Team Manger
Alan Caron
Assistant Coach
Colin Cohen
Team Physio
Dates of competition – July 5th – 12th 2015
Location – Lisbon, Portugal
How to follow – http://www.ecmc2015.eu
