Dundalk has been known to have a pretty good basketball history in the last couple of years. They got to the finals of their division last year where they lost to a team that was stacked with American basketball players. Garrett and I are DKIT’s first American basketball players. On top of that, DKIT moved up this year to compete in the top division of Irish university basketball this year. This has been an exciting experience for the squad but also a lot of pressure on us to do well. The best kind of pressure. Garrett and I are the oldest and most experienced dudes on the team and our coach embraces that by allowing us to run training sessions and help out coaching. So we get to experience basketball from two perspectives, as a coach and a player. My professors have asked me about our season and a couple of them came to check out our games. We are known as the American basketball scholars. In addition, me and Garret have been featured in a couple photoshoots for the school like the one above. It’s nice to be the first victory scholars in DKIT. We get to set the tone and the Irish are very pleased to have us.
The college basketball season is a lot shorter here than in America. Each school plays five regular season games to see where each team places in the end of the year tournament. I’m used to playing at least 27 regular season games and that’s not even including the post season. However, a lot of kids who play college basketball, also play for a club. So it balances out all together. At DKIT, we just finished up our regular season. We went 3-2, dropping two games to some very talented teams. Our coach was more than excited with our record because this is the highest level of competition DKIK has competed at.
Looking forward, our next match will be in April when the Varsities tournament starts. Every Irish basketball player knows and loves varsities. I heard about it 1000 times before I even knew what it was. Varsities is the annual college basketball tournament of Ireland. Every college in Ireland comes to one city to face-off in a three day basketball tournament. The city that host varsities is usually buzzing with basketball players for the weekend. This is the last event of college basketball in Ireland so everyone brings their A-game. Varsities is also known for the nightlife spirit after the games. DKIT will be ready for the Varsities tournament this year and I’m looking forward to being the first American experiencing Varsities with the squad.
