Family ties as close as ever for Kate Hickey and Waterford Wildcats

“It was very competitive growing up. We would almost kill each other playing one-on-one."

Kate Hickey of SETU Waterford Wildcats at the National Basketball Arena for National League launch ahead of the 2024/25 Women's Super League season, which starts on October 5th Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

It’s coming up on three years since the last of Ireland’s three lockdowns. If the covid emergency feels like a lifetime ago now then it doesn’t take much digging to discover the after-effects across the Irish sporting landscape.

It’s evident in the experiences of the Waterford Wildcats club where the successes of Super League and U20s women’s teams at one end, and a thriving underage section between U10 and U14 at the other, sandwich the more basic struggle for numbers at U16 and U18.

Other clubs and sports tell similar stories but individuals adapted as they could.

Kate Hickey thinks back to those covid years with a regret for the two seasons of schools basketball she lost alongside her younger sister Sarah, but they qualified that with their constant one-on-one battles under the watchful eye of their mother Jillian Hayes.

Kate and Sarah had grown up in a gym, absorbing everything they saw almost by osmosis as their mum put together one of the great Irish careers on a hardwood floor with the Wildcats, and with national teams of various stripes across 67 appearances.

Hayes won six Super Leagues, three National Cups and four league MVP awards with the local club and was inducted into Basketball Ireland’s Hall of Fame earlier this year. Kate and Sarah were on holiday in Albufeira at the time: a rare missed stitch in this collective story.

Hayes has now stepped up from assistant coach to head coach as the SETU Wildcats, whose seniors lost last term’s Super League final while the U20s won the National Cup, get their latest Super League campaign underway against double-winning Killester.

“I live at home, Sarah lives in Limerick where she is in college so she gets to come and go,” said Kate. “It is a tough dynamic sometimes trying not to bring it home but we do all get on and it is great to have that support when you are playing the whole time.” 

If basketball dominates their lives then the sporting bug is shared fairly evenly across the wider family unit. Dad Alan’s GAA background has fed into Darragh, the youngest of the three children, who won a county minor hurling medal with Ballygunner this year.

Kate continues to find Gaelic football with Erin’s Own to be a welcome respite from, and complement to, the intensity of the court. Jillian and Sarah are more full-on in terms of the basketball devotion. Each to their own, but the sibling rivalry has served both sisters well.

“It was very competitive growing up,” said Kate. “We would almost kill each other playing one-on-one. We weren’t allowed mark each other in training for a while.

“It definitely helps you grow. I know she’s younger than me but she is a lot stronger than me so playing against her boosts your confidence given how good she is.” 

This family affair extends to the international arena where the daughters are Ireland seniors and their mum an assistant coach. Kate regards playing with Sarah against a powerhouse French side while her mother was courtside as her proudest moment in the game yet.

The Wildcats are over 20 years, since Hayes' days, waiting to win senior silverware. The ambition this term is to be heard at the top of the Super League again, and at the end of the playoffs, and maybe do something similar in the cup.

If the goal is the same then other things have changed.

Their two Americans from last term — Alarie Mayze and Jade Compton — have moved on. They are replaced for the new campaign by the point guard Ashia McCalla who has played in North Macedonia after college and Chelsea Cain out of Indiana State University at post.

“It’s tough [for them] getting used to it at the start but definitely a lot easier when all the girls we have are really nice. When we are getting on off the court it makes it easier to gel together on the court, getting used to how we play and how they play.

“We love to run so for them it’s getting used to our structure and pushing the ball straight away and not holding it up. Pre-season has helped, we’re not fully there but we are getting there and to a stage where we are all comfortable playing with each other.”