Scannell plans run like clockwork

THIS IS the routine. The club’s U18s went up yesterday morning by bus, leaving at 9am, and some of the U20s went along. They all made Bewley’s in Newlands Cross early and the 18s then went to a nearby gym to shoot and get the journey out of their legs.

A lot of the parents were there, and many of the club’s underage players, who have games scheduled against Dublin opposition today. Though the U18s’ weekend ended last night in victory, it’s only the beginning of the weekend for Glanmire Ladies Basketball Club. Their U20s – sponsored by AOS Security, like the U18s – play their National Cup final tonight, and the senior ladies, sponsored by the Montenotte Hotel, take on DCU Mercy in their final tomorrow.

Club coach Mark Scannell is an old hand at organising Cup final weekend now; it’s their third year in-a-row making the three finals, so logistically it’s familiar ground.

“We get an offer from the hotel for the parents and they book in together,” he says, “A lot of the seniors would have taken a half-day yesterday and come up in the afternoon to support the 18s.

“Today there’s a different dynamic. Some of the 18s figure on the U20 squad, so they’re involved in this evening’s final.

“We tell them what we expect at the team meeting,” says Scannell, “Though if there’re U18s who’ve played the night before we let them lie on or go back to bed after breakfast for a sleep. We show a DVD of the opposition for maybe ten minutes and mark out a game plan.”

Then it’s into the routine again – a gym booked for half twelve in Coláiste Bhride Clondalkin, games planned for the U14s to break the monotony.

“We bring the 20s in for a shoot-around at half-twelve,” says Scannell, “And we hold a training session for the kids in the school. Back for lunch, feet up for the afternoon, snack before heading to Tallaght.”

The coach is drawing on the last two years’ experience to ensure the preparations run smoothly.

“I was very lucky, the first year we planned a lot and we hit the jackpot in that we won the three cups, so we felt the approach worked.”

It doesn’t finish today. Not when the senior team face their own final tomorrow.

“With the 20s, when that’s over you’ve to get the 20s girls on the senior team into National League mode. If they win, they bring back the cup and have a bit of crack, it’s easy to get them right, but if they lose there’s obviously a lot more picking up involved.

“What I’ve noticed is that you can have a player who’s had a tough U20 final, but she then plays a brilliant senior final. It doesn’t necessarily mean that if things don’t go their way on Saturday that they won’t do well on Sunday.”

The senior team meeting is tonight, then tomorrow morning it’s an early breakfast before heading to King’s Hospital to shoot around for an hour. A snack at 11am and the Arena at 12 noon. Clockwork.

“You couldn’t write the script,” says Scannell. “We might never again make a Cup final, God forbid; I try to treat every weekend like it’s the last. We were lucky enough to get a great bunch of kids coming through together and the progression has been easy.

“Next year our 18s should be good, maybe our 20s won’t be as good – I don’t know. The big fear I have is that people will take it for granted, because it may not come again. I’m thinking of the younger kids when I say that.”

The players respond to Scannell’s meticulous arrangements.

“It’s great that the three teams have been there for the last three years,” says Niamh Dwyer of the senior side.

“You get a great buzz watching the 18s and 20s. You get involved in it. For DCU it’s a Sunday thing, they come on the day and that’s it, whereas for us it’s a whole weekend, and all the players from the underage are there for the weekend, they’re supporting you and their parents are around for the three days.

“It just shows the sense of community in the club – and it creates a huge buzz for the whole weekend.”

Amanda O’Regan concurs: “For the older players we know finals don’t come around every year, and this year in particular we’ve had to work very hard. We don’t take it for granted. Having the semi-finals in Cork was great, it was very different for us – we wouldn’t have played in that kind of atmosphere, and we’re just hoping the final is exactly the same.

“We stayed in the Montenotte Hotel the night before the semi-final, so we were all together again and replicated what we were used to for Cup matches – had our dinner together, breakfast, and all together going to the game the following day.”

That attention to detail is typical of the coach, say the players.

“Mark has done a very good job of man-management over the years,” says Dwyer. “He’s handled very experienced players, and over the last few years he’s had the equivalent of an Irish team starting and an Irish team on the bench – keeping them together is very difficult to manage and he’s done a great job in that regard.”

There are non-Dublin traditions. Routines that are more local.

“We always come back to The Angler’s just off Blarney Street,” says Scannell. “Niall Burns up there looks after us, and it’s kind of a tradition – he ‘outs’ the lights for the girls as they come in and so on.

“But we try to stay on for the Demons game if we can. When we’ve been in the final the last few years, so have they, and they’ve given us great support and vice versa. Basketball is a small community – we support each other, they’ve been brilliant for us in recent years and given us the edge.”

Maybe so, but they’ve also worked hard to give themselves that edge.