Basketball

Among the various sporting outlets at St. Paul’s few can be more popular than basketball. The Monasterevin school has established a national reputation for itself in the sport.

On Saturday 19 April 2003 the St Paul's Basketball Team won the

Tom Collins Memorial Basketball Tournament  

in Portlaoise.

On Saturday 3 April 2004 they won for the second time in succession!!!

And CONGRATULATIONS    to the St.Paul's basketball team who won their section of the tournament for the THIRD year running on 5 February 2005!!! Our thanks to Mary Morrissey for her great work with the team and organising the tournament.

        The team(left) and the basketball yard with our talented juniors(right).

(click on pictures to enlarge)

    Junior basketball Team Spring 2006

    Senior basketball team Spring 2006

A little bit of history:

Under the late and fondly remembered Tom Collins the school fielded two All-Ireland winning basketball winning teams in the 1980’s.

Tom himself was later to be put in charge of schools basketball for the whole country with his office located in St. Paul’s. The love of the sport he helped foster at the school continues to the present day. Gerry Mahony and Mary Morrissey were the latest coaches. The last All-Ireland success came in 1995.

Gerry Mahony believed the most important aspect of his job as Basketball coach was to encourage involvement and to pass on the torch to the next generation of young players.

After Gerry's retirement Mary continued with the team's high standard.