St. Joseph’s College has a long and proud tradition of playing basketball and competing at both participation level and also in competition at the highest level and have won national titles in every age group. This current year (2022-23) the Bish won all four Western Regional ‘A’ Titles namely Minor, Junior, U16 & Senior and also won four National medals. The teams train at lunchtime and in the evenings. The teams are looking forward to the 2023-24 season.

Awards

The Bish have won many awards over the years including ‘Basketball Ireland School of the Year in 2019, 2016 and 2012. Several Bish players have won player of the year awards including Tony Ezeonu and Brian Gaffney who was awarded ‘Basketball Ireland U16 player of the Year’ in successive years recently.  Many players have also won Most Valuable Players (MVP) trophies for their role in winning All Ireland titles for the school. Five of the Bish U15 players won a National Medal in the U15 Schools Inter Regionals last October namely Sam Herrick, Louis Gannon, Lukas Lydon, Luke O’Reilly & Darragh Kelly.

Coaches

The Bish have three teachers in the school who are qualified coaches, some with Irish International coaching experience who train the teams on a voluntary basis. These coaches have also received the ‘Basketball Ireland Coach of the Year Award’ on numerous occasions.

International

The Bish have also regularly flown the flag for Ireland most recently in the ‘International Schools Federation World Basketball Championships’ in Croatia. Many students from the Bish have gone on to represent on Irish National Teams in European Championships at both underage and senior level proudly representing their school and clubs. This year 2023 Luke Herrick and Eoin Cleary represented on the U16 Irish national teams while current senior Captain Viktor Tashev represented Ireland at U17 level. Former Captain Joseph Coughlan represented Ireland at U20 level this summer and another former Captain Patrick Lyons represented Ireland at Senior level this summer.

Physical Education & Wellbeing

As well as competitive team basketball, the school also offers participation basketball to all students on all Physical Education modules.