Young stars fired up for European challenge

WITH an average age of just 17, the Irish U20 women’s basketball team will face a difficult assignment when they travel to Portugal next week for the European championship qualifiers but team manager, Debbie Keane from Cork, feels they have the experience and the firepower to get through.

"Unfortunately, we have drawn a pretty tough pool," she admitted. "We are in there with Spain, who are going to be the favourites along with Greece to ultimately win the championship, and Italy who are also very strong.

"But we would hope to beat Portugal and England and it is a 50/50 situation against Belgium. That's a game that we can sneak and emerge in a very good position with three teams to go through."

The squad trained in Dungarvan last weekend where they were joined by Luxembourg.

"We played three games over the weekend and it was very beneficial to both of us," Keane said. "It was good for our squad in particular. It is true we have a very young team Lisa Palmer who plays for Waterford Wildcats is only 16 but there is a lot of international experience in the side.

"They have been playing together at international level since they were Cadettes and a number of them were on the Irish junior team that won the Four Countries International Tournament last year."

They have size in the squad as well. Marie Breen from Mallow, who captains the team, is a 6'0" guard and one of those players who have come up from Cadette level.

"Sara Healy from Thurles is 6'2" while Gráinne Dwyer, also from Thurles, is another strong player. We will need all this," Keane said.

The team is coached by former international Francis O'Sullivan from Cork and they will assemble in Dublin over the weekend to complete their preparations.

"They have been training together for this since January so they are pretty familiar with each other," Keane said.

The Junior Men will also be on European Championship duty next week. They travel to Olomuc in the Czech Republic to play Croatia, Belarus, Lithuania and the hosts in Group B.

Three teams will come out of the group to qualify for the semi-final round, with Lithuania and Croatia the firm favourites to top the group.

Lithuania are currently second in the world having been defeated by Australia in the final of the World Championships in Greece last week.

Croatia were denied the bronze when they finished fourth so both are expected to be dominant forces.

Ireland face something of an unknown quantity playing Belarus in their opening game on Wednesday.

The team is led by the 2002 Junior Schoolboy of the Year, David Murphy. The 6'1" point guard came to prominence with Mardyke UCC Demons, leading them to the U19 National Cup semi-finals this year.

Other key players include Notre Dame's talented Scott Kinevane and 6'6" Ciaran White. St Vincent's Philip Taylor has 12 international caps.