Irish Wheelchair Basketball squad set for European C Championships.
The Irish Senior Wheelchair Basketball team departs for the European C Championships in Lisbon, Portugal on Sunday the 5th of July.
Together with Portugal, Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Finland, Ireland will compete for one of two automatic qualification slots to the B European Championships in 2016.
Ireland have not competed at this level since 2009 but following an intensive eighteen month training schedule, Ireland are well prepared going into the competition.
Head Coach Jason Kennedy said, “We’re very excited about competing at the C Europeans in Lisbon this coming July. Training has gone very well to date and we have a great blend of new and experienced players in the squad. We won’t underestimate any team, but that said I’m very confident in the ability of our squad and hopefully we can secure one of the two available qualification slots”.
The Irish team schedule is as follows; (local time)
IRL v GRE Tue 7th 13.30hrs
IRL v BIH Tue 7th 18.00hrs
POR V IRE Wed 8th 15.45hrs
SRB v IRE Thurs 9th 15.45hrs
IRL v FIN Fri 10th 13.15hrs
Final standings matches SAT 11th
Live score updates can be followed will be available on the competition website http://www.ecmc2015.eu/
The squad sees 7 of the clubs represented who play in the Irish senior League and it also comprises of a small backroom team including; Jason Kennedy Head Coach, Team Manager Valene McMullen, Assistant Coach Alan Carron and team physio Chris Cohen.
The full squad is;
| Name | Athlete/support staff | Club |
| · Jason Kennedy | Head Coach/Player | NI Knights (Belfast) |
| · Paul Mc Killop | Athlete/Player | NI Knights (Belfast) |
| · Matthew Rollston | Athlete/Player | NI Knights (Belfast) |
| · Barry Cooke | Athlete/Player | Killester (Dublin) |
| · Michael Cunningham | Athlete/Player | Killester (Dublin) |
| · Joe Hargrow | Athlete/Player | Limerick Scorpions |
| · Tiarnan O’Donnell | Athlete/Player | Limerick Scorpions |
| · Derek Hegarty | Athlete/Player | Fr Mathews |
| · Jason Ryan | Athlete/Player | Ballybrack Bulls (Dublin) |
| · Jonathan Hayes | Athlete/Player | Ballybrack Bulls (Dublin) |
| · Pat O’Neill | Athlete/Player | Swifts Left Bank (Kilkenny) |
| · Keith Connolly | Athlete/Player | Titans Galway |
| · Valene McMullen | Team Manger | |
| · Alan Caron | Assistant Coach | |
| · Colin Cohen | Team Physio |
Dates of competition – July 5th – 12th 2015
- Location – Lisbon, Portugal
- How to follow – http://www.ecmc2015.eu/