Drogheda club to seek National League spot
DROGHEDA could become home to one of the country’s top basketball teams next season after the town’s Bullets and Sparks clubs confirmed plans to merge and apply to enter a men’s side into the National League.
Talks have been taking place for a number of months about joining forces to create a bigger force in the sport, and the merger will see the creation of the newly-branded Drogheda Wolves club with 250 members, embracing both the men’s and women’s game.
Welcoming the developments, Bullets director of coaching Maeve Coleman, who is also the former Irish ladies coach, said: ‘We have done a rebranding exercise with the help of my sister Emer Howard who’s on the board of Basketball Ireland, and we are about to get the document printed, and it shows our vision and our mantra for prospective sponsors to come on board for the National League.
‘The plan is that we will apply for the National League in April, around May time they start the interview process and we will hear in June whether we got in or not.
‘The National League is huge and we don’t know how they will take more teams in, but there’s nobody in this region. There’s Dublin and Belfast but nobody in between and nothing in the midlands, and they’re crying out for a team in this area.’
It’s envisaged that the men’s section will apply for National League status at this stage, with the possibility of the women following in their footsteps in 12 months’ time.
‘There’s a drop-off for girls playing basketball around the age of 15/16, and those of us who have been in mixed clubs have seen the benefit of that,’ Coleman added.
‘We do charity work for SOSAD, and as one club we can be more effective and get more girls playing basketball in the town and grow the club from a coaching, volunteer and social perspective.’
Already the integration of the two clubs has begun, with underage teams using each others’ facilities in St Mary’s DS and Sacred Heart School, and they are organising a fund-raising blitz in aid of SOSAD on January 19th.
Another successful initiative in recent months has been the GAA Crossover Programme which encourages young Gaelic players to try out basketball indoors during the winter months.
It was the Bullets men’s club who approached Sparks ladies initially with the merger idea, but any worries in the women’s section were soon addressed.
Recalling the discussions that took place, Sparks registrar and treasurer Barbara Kelly said: ‘At the start it was a little bit of ‘what are we getting involved in?’ and some long-standing members were a bit worried if we become too big we might become a monster.
‘But we’ve put a lot of work in, it’s been very positive and it makes sense to pool resources.
‘It’s an exciting venture and it’s for the children at the end of the day. Our Under-16s have been together since Under-12 and they’re a strong committed team, we’ll have them next year and then hopefully in the Under-18s.
‘We haven’t had an Under-18 girls team in eight to 10 years and hopefully this plan will address the drop-off in girls playing.
‘I have to mention the parents as well - they’ve been brilliant.’
In terms of the talent available across the current two clubs, the likes of Robert Sullivan, Josh Coleman, Padraig Nulty, Wede Esajobor and Kate Kelly have all earned underage international