Donegal players Maria Kealy and Shannon Cunningham have been named on a squad of 23 for the Irish U20 Woman’s Basketball team.
The squad will be involved in the set-up for the forthcoming international season, culminating with the FIBA U20 Women’s European Championships in Romania in July.
Both women are former Loreto Letterkenny pupils and both played for Blaze Basketball Club in the Cathedral Town.
Kealy (pictured above by Basketball Ireland) is still a pupil at Loreto but now plays her club basketball with Ulster University Tigers.
Cunningham now plays her club basketball with New York MIlitary Academy in the US where she is based.
Head coach Karl Kilbride is able to name an experience squad with five members of the roster who competed in the ‘A’ Division of the FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship in 2022 returning to the fold.
Chief among them is 2023 MissQuote.ie Super League All-Star recipient Sarah Hickey of Waterford Wildcats, as well as University of Galway Mystics duo Hazel Finn, Kara McCleane. Ella O’Donnell, who’s having a standout season at Quinnipiac University and Sinéad Keane of Trinity Meteors are the others.
Maria Kealy, Micaiah Fubara, Ellie Glavin, Emma Glavin and Rachel Callery all boast MissQuote.ie Super League experience with their respective clubs, while Emily Smyth and Katie Flanagan picked up InsureMyHouse.ie Women’s Division 1 National Cup honours with Abbey Seals Dublin Lions in January.
Speaking about the upcoming campaign, head coach Karl Kilbride said “Having gotten to watch most of the girls play at National League and Super League throughout the season and to see the quality on display in the U20 National Cup this year, we knew we were going to be looking at a really strong group. The open session we held over the last few months proved just that.
“We’ve got both a brilliant opportunity and a daunting task ahead of us over the next 3 months. But with the squad we’ve named here, the standard is as high as it’s ever been and we couldn’t be more excited for what will no-doubt be a hectic summer.”
The FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship begins in Craiova, Romania on July 28th. Ireland will compete in the ‘B’ Division and have been drawn alongside Greece, hosts Romania and Georgia in their group, opening against Greece on July 28th.
They will take on Croatia in a friendly series at the start of July, before playing warm-up games against Switzerland and Austria in Romania in the days leading up to the competition.
FIBA U20 Women’s European Championship Group:
Ireland, Greece, Romania, Georgia
Ireland Squad: Ardiana Shallci, Arianna Price, Ella O’Donnell, Ellie Glavin, Emma Glavin, Emily O’Dwyer, Emily Smyth, Erica Egan, Hazel Finn, Kara McCleane, Katie Flanagan, Lucy Coogan, Maria Kealy, Micaiah Fubara, Niamh O’Leary, Rachel Callery, Rebecca Hynes, Riona Grealy, Sara Brazil, Sarah Hickey, Shannon Cunningham, Sinéad Keane, Tara Nevin.
