North Star rebound into double champions!

“In over 25 years of coaching junior basketball, today is right up there with my proudest moments!”

These were the words of North Star coach Emmett Harkin at the end of an extraordinary unbeaten season for his U14 team, which ended with a league and cup double, and a fairytale ending for a team that had come a long, long way in the space of just a few months.

Last season, in their first season in competitive basketball, the U14s finished bottom of the league with a record of 1-13. But rather than be deterred, they put the work in during the off-season, so that when the new campaign came around, they were ready, blitzing their opponents to rewrite their own story, and ensure their own Hollywood ending.

For coach Harkin, it was a comeback story to match any other.

“That was out first season back since the relaunch of the club,” he explained. “It was our first year competing. Last year we weren’t just getting beat, we were getting blown out in practically every match. We won one match, then we were really up against it in the rest.

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“This year however we won every match quite comfortably and it was pretty much the same boys, bar one or two, so it was some turnaround.

“A lot of it is down to the fact that they are just a year older and they have a full year of basketball experience under their belt.

“This year we have been competing in the ’C’ Division because we had finished bottom and we had no right to move up, but this year, halfway through the season, I recognised that these boys are ready to move up the leagues.

“I put it down to the boys working together, turning up to training and just getting that years’ experience. For most of them, the first season was pretty much their first experience of basketball. They just stuck at it. We also added in a second training session.

Coach Emmett Harkin leading his team

Losing heavily week after week would understandably have discouraged some players from returning, but each player showed determination and huge belief in themselves, individually and as a group to come back stronger this past season.

“That is true,” Emmett acknowledged. “The first season would have been a challenge for them, but they love basketball, they really do. We have got big numbers as well, and they love basketball. Even when we don’t have official training sessions, they would book the Foyle Arena themselves and they would go there and play. They love the game and they keep at it.”

Having watched his players develop week by week, Emmett realised very quickly that his team were on the cusp of something special.

“Maybe by the second or third game,” he reflected. “Once I started to see the opposition; the first game of the season was against Bangor away, and we won that. Then we played Ulster Tigers and we beat them. We then went up to Magherafelt and we beat them, and once I had a look I could see then. You play each team three times in a season, and I recognised early that our guys had come on a lot, and were ready to move up.

“Nothing could be taken for granted, but we did win the league and the boys did really well. I did take them down to an invitational tournament in Donegal town against some of the best teams in the country and the standard is a lot higher. They did well in that tournament; they played three games, lost two and won one. The tournament favourites Ballina beat us, but only by four points and we were in the game until the very, very end, so they still held their own against a higher level.

“I don’t think the boys realised that in basketball, the higher the level, the quicker and more intense and more aggressive it gets. They played two matches against that intensity, and by the third match, they got in sync with it and they won. Competition raises everyone’s levels.”

The final step in their remarkable journey was winning the cup on BNI Finals Day, the biggest event in the Basketball NI underage calendar.

“You know yourself in any sport, when you get to a cup final, anything can happen,” Emmett said. “Although we had beaten Bangor throughout the season, each time they kept getting closer to us. I was saying to the boys that it’s really difficult to keep beating the same team. You can’t keep beating the same team because eventually they will figure you out, so going into the final, it was about going back to the drawing board and starting again and treating this like a brand-new match.

“It was a finals day in Lisburn so there’s lots of others teams and divisions there. It is on over the weekend and it’s teams from all over Northern Ireland, so there’s a lot of people there, a lot of crowd, a lot of noise, and a good atmosphere about the place, which they wouldn’t have experienced before, so they got that as well.

“Even tough we were favourites going up, and because we were going to be showcased on front of Basketball Northern Ireland, I wanted the boys to be a well-drilled, well-coached basketball team by playing the game the right way and by being sportsmen and being respectful to the referees and the opposition and each other. They did do that which was why I was delighted. They represented the club well when they were there.”

It has been quite the season for North Star overall with the club’s U16 team also winning a league and cup double while other teams have come so close to silverware. The U12 and U16 Girls’ teams both reached their respective finals, losing out to Queens and Drogheda Wolves respectively, while the U18s lost out to just one basked to eventual winners Queens.

North Star would like to thank the following sponsors: City of Derry Chrystal, X fit gym, DCSC - PHA & Acorn, P Dunne Bus Hire and most of all to the parents and coaches for their ongoing support. A special mention goes to assistant coach Michael Lowth and Fionn Johnson who also helped out with coaching.

New players are welcome to North Star Basketball Club. No experience is necessary.

For more information visit the club’s Facebook page.