East Glendalough School

Senior Basketball Update
January 2011

This year’s senior team was captained by David Van Story and along with players like Scott McGinn, Kane D’Arcy and Calum Watson; the school has never before had such a dedicated and passionate squad of players. At the start of the season, we had high hopes of doing well but we knew that the league we were playing in was of a high standard.

Our first league match was against St. Mary’s, Rathmines. In what was a typical start of season match, we struggled to hit any real form but still managed to win quite comfortably 42:22. Unfortunately, in the warm up for this match, our captain and best player, David Van Story, badly twisted his ankle and was ruled out of action until our very last league match. David’s injury meant that other players would have to raise their game and Calum Watson and Matthew Binions did just that.

Our next match was a Cup game against Colaiste Phadraig, Lucan. This game ranks as one of best all time performances of an EGS school basketball team and we deservedly won 42:34. The whole team displayed great determination and we won because we wanted to win more than the other team. Kane D’Arcy gave a masterful shooting display, scoring a few crucial 3 pointers in the fourth quarter.

Next up was a league game against St. Andrews. This was an excellent game that either team could have won. Unfortunately for us, St. Andrews finished the game stronger to win by 5 points.

We then played our second round Cup game against Rathangan and beat them quite comfortably 44:24 to set up a home encounter against St. Nathy’s from Roscommon. We knew that St. Nathy’s would be tough opponents and they showed their class in the first quarter by outscoring us 20:10. Our never say die attitude kept us in the game in the second quarter and we then dominated the third quarter to leave the scores tied going into the fourth. Despite our best efforts however, Nathy’s were a little bit stronger and they went on to win 52:47 and thus qualify for the All-Ireland quarter finals. Despite the loss, this was another performance to be proud of. Calum Watson gave an awesome rebounding display. Matthew Binions was also brilliant under the boards and capped a fantastic individual performance with 20 points to his name. A special mention also for Tom McHugh who belied his young age to produce an outstanding ball handling display in the point guard position.

After receiving a walkover against OLM Drimnagh, we went into our last league match against Colaiste Eoin knowing that we had to win by at least 6 points in order to qualify from our group. Our team captain, David Van Story had by this stage recovered from his ankle injury and this was a great boost to the team. Unfortunately, Tom McHugh, who had been magnificent in our previous game, injured his ankle in a training session the day before. The pressure of knowing we had to win by 6 or more points seemed to have an adverse affect and we never really got going in this match. Defensively as always, we were strong and restricted strong opposition to just 32 points. Our offense however was badly misfiring and we only managed to score a paltry 24 points.

Never before did the saying “winning isn’t everything” have such significance. Our displays against Colaiste Phadraig, St. Andrews and St. Nathys were amongst the best I’ve witnessed in 20 years coaching in the school. As the sixth years on the team leave us, I thank them and wish them all the best in the future.

2010/11 PANEL: David van Story (Captain), Scott McGinn, Calum Watson, Kane D’Arcy, Alex Ward, Eirik Tonnies, Max Matthews, Daniel Behan, Matthew Binions, Tom McHugh, Duane Topham.

by J. McGettigan

1 Year Boys Basketball

The 2011 1 Year Basketball Team was a fantastic experience for everyone involved.

We started training every Friday during games class. Later in the year, after the team had been picked, we had various matches – some we won some we lost. These included a great match against St. Mary’s Rathmines, which we won. We also had a match against Colaiste Eoin in Dublin where, after a long bus drive, we suffered a disappointing loss. While this wasn’t the best way to end our season we still had our lunch time league which everyone enjoyed and which ended on Sports and Open Day in May. We also had a match against the 2nd year team plus an end of the year mixed basket ball blitz during the last games class of the year. This was great fun. A big thank you goes to Mr. McGettigan for organising events for the 1 Year Basketball Team. Fingers crossed that next year we will get into the final.

Andrew Moore 2E