BASKETBALL TEAMS AT PRESENTATION SPORTS COMPLEX THURLES
2024/25 season
It was yet another busy year for basketball in Pres Thurles. We competed in the A competition this year with four teams entered into the leagues; 1st year, 2nd year, cadette and senior. Big numbers turned out from early in the year for training after school and at lunchtime. We were extremely lucky this year to be able to avail of the excellent coaching of both Sinead Philips and Maria Cruces from Spain. The teams really benefitted from their enthusiasm and guidance throughout the league campaigns. After a few weeks of practice it was straight into games for our senior and cadette teams.
Cup competition:
Our u19 team travelled to Castle Island County Kerry on Monday the 16th September to play Presentation Castle Island in round 1 of the cup.
We travelled light with 9 players making the trip and due to injury only 8 were available to tog but this didn't affect the enthusiasm of the team. We raced into an early lead in the first ¼ showing great energy transitioning from attack to defense effortlessly. It was a great contest throughout the game with fantastic displays from Eva Butler in transition, Martina Creedon under the boards and Aoife Shelly landing a few lovely 3 pointers from distance. The small numbers ultimately caught up with the girls with the 1/4s now 8 minutes in length we just couldn't keep up the intensity of the first and second ¼. With 5 minutes to go in the last there was only 10 points between the sides. Castle island showed great skills going down the home straight and ran out 18 point winners on the day. It was a very encouraging display from the Pres Thurles girls and although now are out of the cup competition they will take confidence from this encounter for the remaining league games.
League competition; Cadette & Senior
Round one of the league saw Pipers Hill Naas travel to Thurles on September 12th. As they had no u16 team it was just out u19 who played. It was a slow start to the competition as Pipers proved to be too physical for us. Alot of work to be done before the remaining few rounds are played. We were home again against Presentation Kilkenny and Loreto Kilkenny, thankfully after two defeats against Pres we recorded a much needed win over Loreto to keep hopes of progressing out of the group alive. Two final away games faced the girls, first up was Heywood. Our seniors recorded a great win on the road meaning a final game away to Naas was the deciding fixture. Unfortunately, Naas prevailed in both games on the day. Well done to both the cadette and senior teams for all your work and commitment during the year. A special mention to our 6th years who are leaving us, they have added a great amount to basketball in Pres Thurles over the years and we wish you well in the future!
First & Second year leagues
As the 1st and 2nd year games don't start until after Christmas we started the year off with some challenge matches with our neighbours Ursuline Thurles. Great numbers of both years showed up all year and the girls under the guidance of the coaches made brilliant progress as many would of never played basketball before. The league games started in early January with both 1st and 2nd years playing home and away games against Pipers Hill, St Marys Naas, Loreto Kilkenny and Pres Kilkenny.
In March Thurles Knights ran the Tipperary Cup competition for both 1st and 2nd years. We such good numbers we were able to enter 2 teams into each competition. These were ran on 2 separate days in the Presentation and Ursuline sports halls. Teams from all over the county participated including, St Annes, Cahir, Coláiste Mhuire Thurles, Pres Clonmel, Rockwell. It proved to be a really enjoyable experience for all players and an exceptional well ran competition. Both our 1st and 2nd years had success on the day, well done to all who participated. Later in the year a participation blitz was ran after school for all teams and year groups, this was an excellent way for the basketball year to be wrapped up with girls playing on mixed teams and developing their skills for the coming year. Well done all!