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The past season was another very successful one for the juvenile teams of St Paul's Basketball Club. With membership continuing to grow and reach record numbers of over 400 boys and girls, the future of Killarney basketball looks very bright and promising.

The St Paul's Little Dribblers initiative caters for almost 50 U-8 players every Friday evening where young participants learn new and basic basketball skills. The recent government Sports Capital Grant will facilitate the purchase of four new professional basketball hoops to assist the development of these young players.

At U-10 boys level, the club catered for 50 players while 35 more played at U-10 girls level. Both teams competed in monthly blitzes during the season while St Paul's hosted a blitz to finish the season.

The St Paul's U-11 boys team reached the Kerry cup final but lost a very close game while the U-11 second team made substantial progress throughout the season. The U-11 girls team were also very competitive in Kerry area board league and cup activities.

The U-12 boys team enjoyed a tremendous season securing a league and cup double. The U-12 girls also had a great campaign in Division 1 and clinched the Shield title. St Paul's U-14 girls did well in Division 1 competitions and the Division 3 team reached the semi-final of the playoffs.

The U-14 boys had an outstanding season winning the cup and the Castleisland Christmas tournament and also finished joint top of league. However, they missed out on the title after losing an away game to Duagh without having the opportunity to play at home. The U-14 Division 3 team also competed very well with a huge panel of players.

The U-16 girls performed admirably in Division 1 and lost the Shield final. The highlight of the season was a trip to Berlin in October where they won all their games against Alba Berlin. The U-16 Division 3 team remained in contention at the top of the league all season and were unlucky to lose out in the cup final.

The U-16 and U-18 boys teams trained hard all year under the guidance of Mikey Keogh and Antuan Bootle with the U-18s reaching the Cup final. The U-18 girls team competed in a very tough Division 1 but did very well to reach the Cup final before losing to Castleisland.

Congratulations to Jamie O'Neill, Ellen Kennedy, Tara Donnellan, Ben Switzer and Luke Crowley who represented Kerry this season. The return of National League basketball to Killarney and the emergence and success of Scotts Lakers is a huge source of inspiration to all the club’s juvenile players.

It is fantastic to see so many of the club teams competing in Division 1 leagues and the club hopes to bring other teams to that level with more coaching and development.

St. Paul's juvenile section are very grateful to our main sponsor Tricel and the Stack family for their tremendous support. Every child in the club received their own set of playing gear and it is fabulous to see all the teams wearing the same matching outfits.

Finally a special thanks to all the club coaches, assistant coaches, team managers

and the hard working comittee who give up their valuable time to look after

all the young players.