Under 14 Girls – Game Reports

Killester under13 Girls played in their first International Basketball tournament when they travelled to the Youth Friendship Games in Holland on Tuesday 24 July. The games lasted for 6 days with over 6000 Athletes playing in 8 different sports.

On the Wednesday morning Killester lost their first game to Cosmos U.S.A. 33-12 and found out immediately that this was going to be a very difficult tournament, with all the other teams comprising of players two years older then the Killester team. Next up was Reign U.S.A. and although we were well-beaten 27-13 the team showed signs of improvement in this game. We had a squad of 14 players and decided from the outset that we were going to play all our players come what may, most of the other teams had only 8-10 players but this was a development step for us and we were not diverting from the plan. Next game up was a friendly game against the beaten Finalists Steelers U.S.A, this game almost caused a major international incident, Killester had the biggest bench seen in our history, their was 9 Killester players and around 25 USA players sitting on the bench supporting us. The Coach of Steelers warned the USA players they were not to cheer against the USA team and the reply was “ we won't cheer against the USA, but we will cheering for the Irish team”. As the coach passed our bench she said “ it doesn't matter about the score Killester have won this game with everyone in the hall supporting them”. The girls were here only a day and were getting on with the USA teams as if they were long lost friends.

On the Thursday morning we played a very big Energy U.S.A. and the girls came out of the blocks from the start putting in an excellent performance before losing 38-30. The coaching staff and parents as well as the massive USA support were beginning to think we could win a game in this competition yet.

Next up were The Lions, Zandvoort a local Dutch team, their smallest player was taller then our tallest player, it looked like we were in for a hiding however we brought the game to them and with a lot of help from the Dutch referee they finish winners by 28-26. Our girls were now showing that they were at the pitch of the competition. That evening, the second round draw took place and our next game was against the Dutch team.

The girls were up nice and early on the Friday in preparation for the return game in the hope that, if we continued to improve and with the massive support behind us that we could turnover The Lions, and win our first game against International competition. We were on top form and taking the game to the Lions, they were struggling from the pressure they were under with our girl playing really well and the two English teams joining the USA teams in support of the Killester team, everyone in the hall with the exception of the players playing on the other court was watching and supporting Killester, willing them on to victory but they need not have worried as we kept up the tempo and ran out easy winners 27-13. The celebrations, which followed, was worthy of the final itself, the World cup Final that is. The excitement, cheering, dancing, high fives, hugging, screaming and that was just the USA and English teams our girls were somewhere in the middle of the huddle we could not see them but we knew they were enjoying the moment.

After having something to eat it was time to play another USA team and the bigger Thrillers USA team beat us 36-22.

Unlike yesterday the girls were slow to rise from their beds on this very sunny Saturday morning, fatigue was setting in after the effort of playing in seven games however a word from coach Martin Grennell soon had the team motivated and ready for more. First up was Brentwood Fire from England, who were a young team like us and only had a couple of older players in their team. Killester although very tired dug in and competed through the game and finished on the right side of a 34-33 result.

Our next game was against Southend Swift who was much bigger and stronger for us but was made to work very hard for their 48-30 win. Our last game, which couldn't come soon enough for a very, very tired Killester team was against a Hungarian team, Misi Miskolc who were far to good for us running out easy winners 32-11. Misi Miskolc is a sports school that practice 3 hours a day on their basketball thus confirming the high standard of the tournament.

Our final day was meant to be a day trip to Amsterdam but when Michelle Clarke was selected to play for the European All Stars v USA All Stars the girls decided to forgo on the trip in favour of supporting Michelle and also coach Martin Grennell who was honoured with the job of coaching the European team.

What a great week we had, 10 games, Opening ceremony Party, Domino's Pizza party, Friendship party and fire work display to mention just a few. Roll on next year and as the players say “We are definitely going again next year”