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.