The Irish senior men's basketball team will return to senior action in 2016.
The news follows the recent reinstatement of the Senior Women’s programme, with both squads set to compete in the FIBA European Championship for Small Countries.
Ireland’s Senior Men were last active in 2009 with a side featuring current Men’s Premier League players Colin O’Reilly, Conor Grace, Jason Killeen, Isaac Westbrooks and Stephen King. O’Reilly has been named as Head Coach of the 2016 squad.
“The timing is right,” said the Coach of current National League and Cup champions C&S UCC Demons. “It means a lot to players to stand for the national anthem and represent their country in their chosen sport. There’s a lot of guys who have done it at underage and this is the right step at the right time.”
O’Reilly was also coach of the Men’s Premier League Select squad at the 2015 Sino-European Championships in China and the Hibernia combined-club side who took part in the FIBA Europe Cup.
“If you bring the best players in the country together for sessions, fellas are going to improve,” he said. “But there has to be a structure for elite players providing higher levels of training, strength and conditioning as well as more variety in coaching. We’re trying to build continuity but there will be guys coming in who weren’t available before. It’s a one-off tournament but that can’t be the end goal.”
The project will be administered by the Men’s National Competitions Committee following their request to the Elite Performance Committee and Board of Basketball Ireland. As with all currently active International squads, the programme will be self-funded.
In addition to the European Championships for Small Countries for Men and Women, Ireland will be competing at European Championships at U16, U18 and U20 levels in 2016. U15 and U17 development squads bring the total number of active International squads to 12.
Speaking about the announcement, Basketball Ireland Secretary General Bernard O’Byrne said: “This is a logical development following the ventures to China last summer and the Hibernia games. I am sure the players will rise to this next test and I wish them well.”
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