A Road to Glory - St. Paul's Basketball Team 1997

On the 10 and 11th May, St. Paul’s Girls Basketball team put up a tremendous fight to achieve a brilliant 3″ place in the All-Ireland. Their first game was against Falcarragh, Donegal Unfortunately, they were beaten by 40 points to 31, but they played an absolute brilliant Fourth Quarter making up about eight points.

Their second match was a very exciting match against Loreto, Swords. They played a fantastic Third and Fourth Quarter and made a tremendous come-back of ten points and won the match by 27-29. They had a long day and tomorrow was going to be just as long, but they had the strength to go out Sunday morning and play brilliantly against Loreto Navan and beat them by just one point. The final score was 29-30.

At this stage, they were in the Semi-Finals and they had enough strength to try and overcome this brilliant team – Mallow. St. Paul’s didn’t give up without a fight. But their strength was not enough to overcome this Mallow team. The final score was 40 – 30 to Mallow.

Soon afterwards, St. Paul’s received their bronze medals proudly.

This fighting team was captained by Caoimhe Clancy, along with Gillian Kenny, Mary Byrne, Emer Butler, Shannon Tierney, Laura Molloy, Leesa Conneely, Lorraine O’Holloran, Roisin O’Reilly, Avicen Fahy, Caroline Clancy, Sinead Darcy, Kathleen Duggan and Carol Gibbons. This marvellous team was coached by Mr. P. Kelly and three Transition Year students. A special thanks to all the supporters who went up on Saturday and also to the teachers who were Mr. Joyce, Mr. Molloy, Mrs. Nihill, Mrs. O’Grady, Mr. Clancy and a thank you to Mrs. De Faoite and Mrs. O’Grady who stayed with the team in Dublin and also the parents of the players who went up.

Left to Right: (Front Row): Roisin O’Reilly, Shannon Tierney, Gillian Kenny, Caoimhe Clancy, Laura Molloy, Sinead D’Arcy and Mary Byrne. (Back Row): Mr. Kelly (Coach), Caroline Clancy, Emer Butler, Lorraine O’Halloran, Avicen Fahy and Leesa Conneely.