After two try outs with the most competitive basketball players from all over Ireland playing in the college league, I was selected to represent Ireland on the All Ireland Colleges Select Team! This was the highlight of my time playing basketball in Ireland. Twelve girls were selected to play in an international tournament where we had the chance to compete against Scotland. As the only player from Northern Ireland I had quite a few weekends traveling down south for the trials and training. I had a nice long weekend traveling to Cork for a training session then a fun night staying over with the lovely Trinity scholars Jen and Christine. It was a fun yet more intense and competitive basketball experience for me. Our coach put in structure with more plays and the level of ability by the other 11 girls was of a high standard. Three of the other eleven girls were my good friends and fellow Victory Scholars, Kelsey, Christine, and Nicole! We won all three of our games and I couldn’t be happier to have had the chance to represent Ireland on an international level. My basketball has varied this year from the Elks, Ulster University team, and the Irish College Select team. All three teams were at all different levels and very different and it was amazing to get the chance to play with so many different teammates in one short year.

Hey guys!

You probably already know this, but we lost last week by 2 against Ballon, 80-78. We played really well as a team, probably was one of the better games we played all year! Paulus had a game high 29pts, Freeman hit one of the biggest shots of the game in the final seconds of the 4th and Tim played great D on the starting point guard! It’s a shame the season had to end the way it did, with the Titans losing their fourth finals in a row. Hopefully next year, the guys will be able to finally break this evil curse!

Earlier this week, I supervised an intercultural scrimmage in one of the town’s gym. Prior to this, the Titan’s wheelers club (wheelchair basketball team), were practicing for their upcoming basketball game. One of Titan’s biggest supporters was there, David Kennedy, playing his heart out against some of the toughest athletes I’ve seen all year. These basketball players really illustrate what perseverance and dedication really is. No matter the reason they became confined to their wheelchairs, no matter how old they where, you could really see their determination in the way they played. It was something special to see. 

The titan’s academy wrapped up this week. This weekend was the last academy of the year. It was an emotional day as this would be the last time I would coach the Titans kids all together. We spent the final session playing full court games, snatch the bacon and knockout. Following the session, we had the Titan’s award ceremony where the young titans were honored for all their hard work this season. All children under the age of 12 received a participation medal, and MVP’s and Best Titan award were awarded to two players in every age group. Above is a photo of the entire Titan’s organization hanging out after the ceremony! 

Next weekend are the university varsities. The NUIG team looks very good. The team is comprised of a few Maree, Moycullen and Titans players. I think we have a very good chance of winning the entire thing next week. We have a practice Wednesday night and we’re leaving for Limerick Friday morning. Wish us luck. Hopefully NUIG meets Jordanstown in the finals for an all- Victory Scholar show down!

See you all next week!

Will

Hey guys,

I’d like to start off by saying thank you to everyone who wished myself and Will good luck in the National League Championship. Unfortunately we came up short in a heart breaking 2 point loss, 80-78. Ballon was an excellent team and the game was extremely hard fought, physical, and intense. With 26 lead changes in the game, you can imagine the atmosphere between the our loyal Titans supporters and the rowdy Ballon fans. It’s always hard for a season to come to an end. Now we are fully focused on the Varsities tournament with the NUIG men’s team next weekend down in Limerick.

Last week I was back coaching at St. Pat’s. I continued the practice of allowing the boys to referee themselves. They’ve stepped up and taken more authority in games and have also began respecting each other a bit more. it was great to see one of the boys step up as a leader and quiet down a fellow classmate when he was trying to complain to the ref. The one boy showed his leadership by standing up for the ref, and insisting that the ref’s call be respected. He even went as far as to say to his classmate “We need to treat the ref with the same respect we treat Tim!” So it seems like the message is getting through!

As some of you may know, the weather here in Galway has been absolutely incredible! It’s been sunny and warm (I say in the 60’s and 70’s and everyone else says in the teens and 20 degrees). I’ve tried enjoying as much of the weather outside as I could during our last week of classes. Will and I were able to get a couple hours out by the beach after a few hours of International Corporate Finance on Monday. On Tuesday I had the U16/U18 Titans girls team and they insisted on having training on the outside courts at St. Mary’s. I thought this was a fantastic idea. We even had a little party afterwards with pizza and cake because one of the girls on the team will be returning to Germany this Saturday. 

We have our last week of Academy this Saturday which will be followed by an award ceremony where we will be awarding MVP’s and Titans of the year for the different age groups. I really can’t believe how fast time is flying by here in Ireland. It feels like yesterday that the season was just getting under way. 

That’s all for now. It is going to be time to start studying for finals and preparing for the Varsities tournament. Take care eveybody!
-Tim

This week most schools in the country were on break for half term, it’s unbelievable how fast this semester is going by. Due to the break there were smaller numbers for all ages at the elks club practices this Friday. For the 18u Elks practice there were only 2. These two girls could have easily packed up there things and went home when they saw that no one else was there but instead they decided to make the most of there time at the gym and get to work.

 

We ended up having a great workout, I was able to help them in all different areas around their game, things we wouldn’t normally get to do if the whole team was there. I was proud of these two girls and they inspired me to go a little extra this week with my individual game. Good work Michelle and Briana I can’t wait to see the work translate into our two games this week!

 

Victory Scholar: James Zuccaro

Present University: Ulster University

US League: Skyline Conference

Club/Community Partner: Ulster Elks

Alma Mater: College of Mount Saint Vincent

Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland

I flew directly into Pisa, Italy, and took the ground running as I taxied over to see the Leaning Tower and take my classic touristy pictures. The first thing I noticed when I got off of the plane was the HEAT! I felt a sigh of relief with the change in weather and couldn’t wait to soak in the sun the rest of the week.

 

Next stop was Florence, as I met up with my family friend and took a quick tour around the beautiful city. I should also mention that I had planned to stay with family friends the entire week, from city to city. Florence was the perfect speed for me, as the local architecture, museums, and restaurants were readily available without the long lines I had been expecting. My favorite part of Florence had to be the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, as it became the perfect background for many of my pictures 🙂

 

My week continued as I took day trips to Rome and Venice, which couldn’t be more different. Rome was a large and bustling city with tourists everywhere – and plenty of places to see! After touring the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, and the Vatican, I was exhausted! Meanwhile, Venice was the exact opposite, as the Grand Canal provided a sense of peace as soon as I stepped off of the train. The main transportation in Venice is by boat – so it’s virtually impossible to be in a rush in this city. It gave the perfect offset to the hustle and bustle of Rome, and earned a spot on my future honeymoon location list 🙂

 

The week continued with stops in London and Durham (northern England), as I continued to visit friends – and make more friends on the way. London was amazing as I received a taxi tour of the city from another family friend – and got to see Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, as well as Tower Bridge and Big Ben! Meanwhile, Durham reminded me of a scene from Harry Potter at every turn. My friend Bryan goes to Durham University, and was the perfect host for the weekend.

 

This solo trip taught me how important and how small the world can really be. Once I realized how many family friends were located in the area, it became even easier for me to just go and explore. This was my first time traveling on my own, and it increased my sense of independence even more. It gave me more confidence, while at the same time making me more comfortable in simply being by myself at times. Taking the time to unplug and really interact with strangers is an art that we seemed to have lost – and I aim to get that back

Hi guys!

Hope everyone here had a great week! I know I did! Davidson Wildcats made the NCAA tournament by defeating the Western Carolina Catamounts by 2 in double O.T. I’m very proud of the guys and I’m expecting great things from them in the big dance! The remaining minutes of the game illustrated what Davidson basketball was all about. Poise and toughness! Coach McKillop’s philosophy, ‘help somebody, help yourself’ was in full effect! Good luck to the Wildcats next week! 

My management classes are also going well. We have about 3 weeks left of school and in another three we have our final exams. It’s incredible how fast this semester passed by. People say time passes the fastest when you’re having fun. I guess they’re right! I’ve been spending a lot of time on my literature review for my thesis. It’s taking up a lot of my time, but I’m sure that once it’s over with, it’ll be a great feeling! 

I coached at the National School once again this week. My four groups are getting better each time I see them. Similarly to the past weeks, we spent the majority of our time working on basics. It was finally time for the girls to learn how to make a proper layup. I remember when I was 12 that making a layup with the appropriate footwork was a real challenge! My goal is to have them play basic 3 on 3 games with the proper technique by end of April! 

We won our last regular season game last week against Portlaise. It was an ugly game even though we won by 25 points. Conall, Paul and Tim played great at various instances! Team is meshing really well. Tonight is our first playoff game against Kilkenny! The team is pumped and we’re looking forward to the game. We had a great week of practice and we’re ready to play tonight!

We’ll talk again next week!

Will

Hey guys!

Talk about a productive and successful week in Galway! Ok. I’ll start with the National League. We had a solid week of training to prepare for our last regular season game against Portlaoise. Some of us got lost on the way to the game and arrived a bit late which led to a shortened warm-up which is never good. So we started off the game a bit slow, but by the third quarter the Titans were up and running. We ended up winning the game by 23 which was a great way to finish up the regular season on the road. Now on to the playoffs, with us hosting Kilkenny next weekend in the National League quarterfinal.

I had a bunch of coaching as usual this week, as I’m still helping out over at GCC to help prepare them for the Division 3 All-Ireland’s this coming week. I had an outstanding session with the Titans U-16/U-18 girls on Tuesday. It was one of their best sessions as I don’t think I’ve ever seen them work that hard! The Titans U-18 boys had a good training session on Friday as well. Up until this point I’ve pretty much been working on player development with them individually as they lacked most fundamentals of the game. They’ve shown phenomenal improvement over the last 2 months so now we’re finally starting to work on some 5 on 5 stuff. 

The Titans academy on Saturday was excellent, especially because we had a few new faces. There were a few new boys that were brought in by their social worker to join the Academy for the day. These boys are classified as underprivileged and at-risk. Throughout the day there were times where I could see the potential for them to cause trouble. However, I looked to use their strong personalities to be a positive influence on the camp. So instead of scolding them or even allowing them a chance to get in trouble (as it could often be to try and get attention) I would have them already be the center of attention by asking them to help me demonstrate a drill, start a line somewhere, etc. The boys responded wonderfully! Their social worker was smiling and even snapping photos on the sidelines because the boys behaved so well, participated actively, and had a ton of fun! They were a true pleasure to have in Academy this week and will be returning next week.

Today I helped to coach a U-10 and U-11 match between Titans and Corrib. It was a light-hearted, fun competition where we got to have a bunch of our kids play. First the boys played, followed by the girls game. All of our young players played their hearts out and really showed how they’ve improved over the last few months in the Academies. I’m very proud of how well and how hard they all played!

As far as school is concerned, we had two big assignments due this week – the big global business project and a global marketing presentation. The global business project was a bit of a headache but we got it done. Then Will and I were in the same group for the presentation and we absolutely rocked it! We did a case study on Build a Bear Workshop and had a classmate dressed up as a lifesize teddy bear for the presentation. We then used Prezi, the online software presentation tool, which is a bit more interactive and dynamic than traditional PowerPoints. We did a great job on the presentation and afterwards the professor even said she had fun during it!

Until next week…

-Tim

This past weekend I got the chance to watch the Bucknell University basketball team, my former team, play on senior day. It brought me back to that emotional day that I experienced one year ago. As I watched my best friends play their last home regular season game of their careers, it allowed me to reflect on the memories I experienced in that gym. What made my experience at that school so great were the people that I was able to experience it with. I will always miss those years of my life that included a lot of hard work and some great struggles to go along with the incredibly enjoyable moments. But I will miss nothing more than the people that I got to share those memories with. It’s hard to believe that soon enough I will be reflecting on the time I spent in Ireland, as a member of Sport Changes Life. I now know that what I will miss the most and cherish the most about this experience is no different than that from my time at Bucknell. What I will miss the most is the people and the relationships that I create during my time spent on the Emerald Island.

 

By the way, Bucknell got a huge win against 2^nd place Boston University to stay in first place in the Patriot League!

 

 

Victory Scholar: Cory Starkey 

Present University: NUI Galway

US League: Patriot League 

Club/community partner: Galway Titans 

Alma Mater: Bucknell University 

Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland 

My Tiger’s u14 team recently finished their undefeated season by winning the league title.  Coaching these kids has been one of the best aspects of my time in Ireland because of the energy and enthusiasm that each player brought to practice every Saturday morning.  Every time I walked in the gym the kids were eager to learn and improve.  There were no egos on the team as each kid played for each other and constantly sacrificed for the betterment of the team.  The players had a genuine love for the game of basketball.  Throughout my time with Tigers I’ve learned how universal and transformative basketball can be.  Basketball allowed even the most shy and reserved kids to feel confident enough to express themselves on the court.  Saturday’s in West Belfast allowed me to grow as a coach and person through being able to teach these kids and learn about their community.  West Belfast is an area filled with hardworking families whose kids display that same effort every time they step on the court.

MARCH MADNESS!!!!!

It’s that time of the year again where all the college basketball fans in the world reunite and watch the greatest basketball tournament ever! In a few short weeks, the NCAA Tournament will be up and running. Upsets will happen, a new Cinderella will go to the big dance and a new champion will be crowned!!! 

Every time March comes around, it always makes me reminisce about our 2008 Elite Eight run with the Davidson Wildcats. That year, we had won the Southern Conference Championship and headed into Raleigh the following week to play Gonzaga in the 1st round of the tournament. Coach McKillop had never won a tournament game and the Wildcats hadn’t won one since the 1969 run to the Final Four. We ended up beating Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin, but lost to Kansas by two in the Elite Eight. We had the chance to win, but couldn’t pull it off. But looking back, there are no regrets because this was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’m just grateful that I had the chance to go through such a run with the likes of Max Paulhus, Andrew Lovedale, Jason Richards and this guy named Stephen Curry! 

OK! Sorry for all this reminiscing… now it’s time to give you an update on what went on in Galway this week! Well first thing, the coaching sessions at the Academy and at the National school were once again very fun to coach. My girls at the National school began working on their right handed layup. I got them to sing the right handed layup song and do the right handed layup dance. It really isn’t too complicated… the song has three words and there are three dance moves… RIGHT, LEFT, UP! RIGHT LEFT UP! RIGHT LEFT UP! RIGHT LEFT UP! After 30 minutes of repetition they had it down to a science!! Haha. 

Next week I’ll try to incorporate the dribble prior to the layup and maybe try and get them to do a left handed layup… that’ll be a challenge, but I’m sure they’ll be up for it!

We have our last game of the season against Portlaise tonight! Next up are the playoffs!

See you next week! 

Will

What’s up everybody??

Speaking of Donegal…last week my U-18 Titans team had a little round robin tournament here in Galway between the Titans, Galway Community College, and a very talented team that traveled all the down from Donegal. First game was between the Titans and GCC. Two of my best players were late for the game and as a result I sat them for the entire first quarter. Unfortunately we lost the game by 2 and sitting those two may have had something to do with it, but they needed to understand that we have team rules and the rules apply to everyone. Nonetheless, we played that game rather poorly with a lot of turnovers and some bad shots. Donegal beat GCC by about 20 in the next game. And thirdly, we played the Donegal team, who were very talented and well-coached. This time, the Titans were ready to play. We played excellent full court man to man defense (my favorite thing to do in training) and hit some BIG shots down the stretch. We ended up winning by 2 in overtime. I used that as an example to show the boys how well they can play when they work hard and take care of the basketball.

In other basketball news, I was back at St. Pat’s this week as well as Titans Academy and the training for the Titans U-16 girls and U-18 boys. I also picked up another coaching session last week and this coming week as the coach from GCC asked me to come down and run a couple sessions to help prepare their team for the All-Irelands in two weeks time. I was happy to help and honored to be asked. 

It was a good week of classes for me. We had 3 assignments due, one for international corporate finance, one for irish economic policy, and a rough draft for global business. The global business project is proving itself to be pretty difficult as there is some unwillingness to contribute from a couple group members so the workload has weighed a bit more heavily on myself and one other group member. However, that is all part of the project and part of doing business so it’s up to us to effectively deal with it and finish the task at hand. 

Last night we had a HUGE win over our cross-town rival, Maree. We’re really starting to come together as a team. We’ve realized that when we put in a very strong defensive effort that we can be a very tough team to beat, as we have so many offensive weapons, but it all needs to start with defense. Maree beat us earlier this year by 6 so we were certainly up for this game. We came out hard and kept up the effort for the whole game, eventually winning by about 20 points. Myself and Will both played well and connected on an almost-ally oop (which would have been the second of the year). I will post that video following this. With the win, and provided we win next week, we will have locked up second place in the league which would mean a home quarterfinal which is always nice.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great week. I may try and stay up for this all-star game but I don’t know if I’ll be able to. Talk to you guys later!
-Tim

When I suggested to my friends in Ireland that we all watch the Super Bowl together, I failed to think about the fact that we were in a different time zone and that the Super Bowl would actually be on TV here at 11:30 at night. Nevertheless, we persevered, buying snacks and caffeinated drinks that we hoped would keep us awake throughout the game.

 

We gathered Sinead’s living room around a cozy fire—which was probably a mistake because it made me instantly drowsy. I guess it made Sinead sleepy too because she drifted off during the pregame show. When she woke up just as the first quarter began, she jokingly said, “Well at least I made it to the start of the match,” and then went off to bed.

 

Jaz and I munched on our snacks in an effort to stay awake as the game went on. Eventually when the halftime show finished around 2:00am, Jaz finally gave in and went to bed too. I was the last man standing as I tried to finish out the entire game. I dozed off near the end of the third quarter when I just couldn’t stay up any longer.

 

I ended up missing the end of the game, and all of the ads that were played during the commercials in America—apparently those same ads aren’t streamed in Ireland! Ironically, the one time I actually wanted to watch commercials, I wasn’t able to.

 

Nonetheless, it was still a great night. I’m happy I got to watch the Super Bowl with my friends here in Ireland, even if we all slept through half of it.  

 

 

Victory Scholar: Katie Fox

Present University: Waterford IT

US League: NEC

Club/Community Partner: Waterford Wildcats

Alma Mater: St. Francis College

Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my time here this year as a Victory Scholar has been the opportunity to help coach the Andytown Tigers U14 girls basketball team.  Though I never thought I would enjoy coaching, the time I’ve spent with these girls has been full of enough laughter and good times to completely change my mind. Throughout the year, I’ve been able to teach them some of what I know about basketball, but more importantly, I’ve created little friendships with them that will last long after my time here is over.

 

Through hard work and dedication, my girls made it all the way to the finals this year where they were set to face off against the Elks, coached by my roomie/BFF Caroline! For many of my girls, it was their first time experiencing “Finals Day” and as a coach, I wanted nothing but for them all to enjoy the day; win or lose. After putting up a great fight, they fell in the last quarter and conceded the win to the Elks.  The whole Tigers family was extremely proud of them regardless of the outcome, and in the awards ceremony they received a trophy and medals for making it all the way to the Final.

 

A few weeks later, John and Clare (Tigers club mum and dad) organized an amazing Prize Night for everyone to attend. I absolutely loved seeing all the kids from all of the different teams dressed up for the event. Anyone could see how excited they all were to be there, and there were many prizes to give away. I had to choose an MVP, Most Promising, and Most Improved out of the players on my team. It took a lot of time and thought to settle on a final decision, but I got there eventually and I was so happy to announce them that night.  The girls got trophies, medals, a great meal, and a ton of photos that represent memories they can keep with them forever.  I’m so happy I was able to attend and see that my team was recognized for the admirable effort they had put in all season and the progress they had made as a result.

 

I’ve made sure that I have ways to stay updated on all my girls after I fly back to America, so that they know I will always be there for them if they need me, and also because I am so excited to see what else they will accomplish, collectively and individually.  I’ve loved being a part of the Andersontown Tigers Basketball Club this year and I’m grateful to all who’ve made it possible for me to do so. 

guys,

Hope everyone is doing well this week! I was back in school on Monday getting my ‘corporate finance-on’. We’re learning about multinational capital structuring right now. It sounds difficult, but isn’t too bad. Hopefully I’ll continue getting a hang of it as the semester progresses. The rest of the week at NUIG was very similar to the previous weeks. I did have an Economics assignment due on Wednesday and a rough draft due for the international business report I mentioned a few weeks back.

Working with people from different countries and time zones has become a lot easier over the last month. It may be because I’m just getting used to working with them or I ended up getting into a really good group! We’ve managed our time reasonably well and haven’t had much conflict between team members. 

Coaching this week involved a few stints at the National school and the Titan’s Academy. The girls at the National school are working on their dribbling now (especially dribbling without looking at the ball) and have been getting better every week. The Titan’s Academy also went well, although the kids did lack discipline at the beginning of the session. It wasn’t a problem for long as I quickly turned the tables around by making them do a few sprints and a couple sets of pushups. The rest of the practice ran very smoothly to say the least!

We have a National League game tonight vs. Maree. The second meeting we had vs this team resulted in a loss for us. We need to pick it up tonight and kick some butt! 

Wish us luck!

Will

Hi everyone,

What’s happening?! Things in Galway have been very quiet this week as the mid-session of the semester has arrived. The majority of the schools in the area are off for the week, so the coaching at the National School and the Titan’s Academy were stalled temporarily. 

Coach Matt did organize a short 2 day camp at the end of the week for the kids that did want to work on their basketball skills during their off week. The first session included a handful of 8-10 year olds. Matt and I decided it was time to really focus on developing their cognitive abilities and coordination through repetition and hard work. After playing a few fun games such as ‘killer bees’ and ‘cat and mouse’, the young ones went hard at work when we started showing them the proper footwork for the right handed layup! 

The first thing I did was line them up in the middle of the court. Asked them to raise their right hands (which they all did… eventually!), and to step forward with their right foot, followed by their left, and to eventually lift their right knee up to give them some explosiveness. I eventually got them to sing the ‘RIGHT, LEFT, UP’ song for a few minutes, which was amusing to hear. 

After catching on to the tune, we headed to the basket where we applied our newly gained knowledge. ‘Right, Left, Up’, I kept hearing from a few determined little basketball players. We went hard for another 20 minutes, until I thought the kids had learned enough. Hopefully they’ll go home this weekend and keep working hard at it!

By the way… I know I spoke about Jeremy Lin last week… But I just need to mention this again, ‘with hard work and perseverance, big dreams can be accomplished’. Even with a loss last night, he still amassed 26pts, several rebounds and assists. He really is the epitome of hard work!

Talk to you guys next week!!

Will

 

Last week I had a game up in Galway and after the game I was able to spend the weekend with Cory and Rita, who are the two Victory Scholars in Galway. This is another perk about being a Victory Scholar is that you have a free place to stay with friends at other universities around Ireland. Seeing Cory and Rita in Galway was like seeing my friends when I went back home for Christmas. I felt like I had known them my whole life and it was great to catch up with them. It was a neat feeling to see familiar faces in an unfamiliar city and also have a “tour guide” around Galway. I crashed on their couch for the weekend and I enjoyed hearing about their Victory Scholar experience at NUIG. In the big picture, each scholar does the same thing of helping in the community, coaching teams, playing on teams, and pursuing a Masters degree; however, each scholar has their own unique Sport Changes Life experience because we are at separate universities in separate cities.  I was glad I was able to see part of Corey and Rita’s experience in Galway and I hope I will be able to visit some of the other scholars in other cities.

 

 

 

 

Victory Scholar: Staats Battle

Present University: University of Limerick

US League: ACC

Club/Community Partner: UL Eagles

Alma Mater: North Carolina State University

Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland

 

I couldn’t be prouder of my under 14 Elks this season. The team has transformed from the beginning of the year to the final championship game. Coaching these girls was not only one of my biggest challenges of the years, but also one of the most rewarding experiences. Not only were these wee girls always energetic and excited for practice but they also continued to improve week after week. It wasn’t always a dramatic improvement, or a fast improvement but by the end of the year we were a TEAM, a real basketball team that understood the rules and concepts of the game. We were also a team that liked to win, sometimes the girls forget what it was like to lose and I had to remind them it could be a good thing to lose so we can learn from those mistakes. I can proudly say all players on the team scored a basket and in their own way contributed to a big win. Having some very skilled players, and some players that had never touched a basketball before, we were a diverse team. This diversity helped us all grow as players. The weaker skilled players learned fast, and the veteran players learned how to organize, communicate and help their new teammates. As a coach I was learning by the minute how to try and help each individual girl grow and keep the team going at the same time. It was a whirlwind of a season and it couldn’t have had a better ending then the big win in the championship game. The picture does all of the talking! Love these wee ballers.

Hey everyone! 
So it’s been almost 2 weeks since my last post and a whole lot has happened since then. First off, we’ve notched 2 wins for the Titans since then – traveling down to Cork to knock off the Blue Demons and defeating Portlaoise at home. Those are two solid wins that we desperately needed and now we’re off this weekend with a big game against Maree next weekend.

Last week I had a full week of school, with assignments being given out and due dates coming quickly right around the corner. I had a good week of coaching both at St. Pat’s and the Titans academy. In addition, my under12 boys team had a game which was hard fought, but unfortunately we lost. The week was rounded out by reffing an under13 boys game coached by Will, where his boys played very hard but came out on the short end. 

However, on a brighter note, I had a wonderful opportunity to travel to Sweden for this past week with some of the younger Titans players, as well as parents and a couple coaches. We traveled to Goteborg, Sweden, home of Hogsbo Basketball club where their head coach is Irish basketball superstar Michael Bree. I spent the week working camp with Michael and some of his Swedish coaches, working with over 100 kids from Swedish and Irish backgrounds. This was truly an amazing experience as I was able to teach the game of basketball to kids from two different countries and get them to work together. It was incredible how these young players came together on their respective teams like they’d been playing the game together for years and not merely a few hours. It was an absolute pleasure coaching this week as all the kids had a genuine passion for the game and a burning desire to get better. I was also fortunate enough to learn a lot myself from Michael Bree, some of the other coaches, and from a lot of my players. This is simply another phenomenal chapter of the amazing opportunity that I’ve been provided with here in Ireland.

As far as challenges go from the week in Sweden, there is one particular one that actually ties into my International Management course. In some of our classes we have discussed cross cultural differences and potential boundaries for doing business across borders. One such boundary is language. Now while most of the older kids spoke perfect English, most of the younger students only spoke Swedish which made teaching them drills and running certain stations incredibly difficult. I did a lot of pointing, gesturing and demonstrating with the ball. Sometimes there would be a child who had an American or English parent and they would translate for me. 

Another difference was my sense of humor. Generally speaking when I’m coaching I like to work hard and have my players work hard. However, I often make jokes to try and help the kids have fun. This past week I would do that and the Irish kids would laugh but not always the Swedish kids. I think it took them a few days to understand my sense of humor, but by the end of the week we were all laughing and having a great time. It truly was an amazing experience and I’ll never forget it.

Now that I’m back in Galway it’s back to the books and I’m heading off to the computer lab at school to finish up working on some assignments due this week, so that I can enjoy my birthday tomorrow! Talk to you guys later! Have a great week!

-Tim

What’s going on guys?

So much has been going on this week it has been really difficult to keep up! With coaching, practicing, playing games, school work, group meetings and the beginning of some pretty tough projects, managing my time has been my top priority since the last time I posted. 

The weekly coaching sessions have been going great. I started showing the girls how to dribble the ball properly. The majority of them had never really played basketball before I got there, so it has been very easy for me to teach them these new skills. I really don’t have to try to break the bad habits some young players have developed over the years! 

My Saturday mornings and afternoons are dedicated to the young Titans at the weekly Titan’s Academy. My 15-17 year old group this week worked on their shot once again, and I have got to say, they are SERIOUSLY getting better! I’m so proud of these kids. All the hard work they’ve been doing has really paid off. In other news, I coached my U-13 team vs Corrib. We lost the game, but considering the amount of practice time these kids have together, I was pretty impressed with their game. 

My business project has picked up steam. My group members and I have ‘met’ several times (online) to discuss some of the main points of the report. We finally decided what company we would be doing our analysis for and began researching more on the potential markets our company could try to enter. At the moment, we haven’t had any trouble with any of our group members which is somewhat of a relief! From what I’ve been hearing, some of my classmates are having a nightmarish of a time with this assignment!!!

Just a quick update on our last National League game; we won our game by 6 pts or so against the Demons. It was a hard fought game which had several highlights from a few of the players on the team! And we got a win tnight vs Portlaise. Wasn’t pretty, but still got the dub! 

P.S.. HOW ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE OF HARVARD GRADUATE/CURRENT KNICKS PLAYER JEREMY LIN OVER THE LAST 4 GAMES?!?!?!!? UNBELIEVABLE. A true illustration of perseverance and dedication. 

Talk next week!

 

Back home, my friends and I would always do this joke called, “You didn’t hear?” When someone asks you a question, you simply respond, “You didn’t hear?” and leave it at that. The person will look confused and answer, “No, I didn’t hear, what happened?” And that’s when you shake your head like you can’t believe it and slowly walk away. I know it sounds like a really pointless joke but try it someone time when your friends don’t expect it and its actually pretty funny.  It leaves the person really curious and really puzzled.  You can respond “You didn’t hear?” to literally any question and it will work. My friends and I would say it all the time that it has almost become a habit for me to respond to questions that way.

 

When I coach the 9u age division, the kids always have so much energy. They are enthusiastic to be there and always ask me a million questions. One day I decided to do the “You didn’t hear?” to respond to them. They would ask, “How big are your shoes?” “Can you dunk?” “Have you played against Steph Curry?” and so on and so on. I answered all their questions with the “You didn’t hear?” and it drove them absolutely crazy. The other coach that was helping me was laughing so hard and it was all good fun until the next training session where it ended up completely backfiring on me.

 

At the next training session (and every training session since), as soon as I walked into the gym, I was surrounded by the kids all saying, “You didn’t hear!? You didn’t hear!? You didn’t hear!?” They were saying it over and over without me even saying anything. I quickly learned my lesson that I need to pick my jokes more carefully. 

 

 

 

Victory Scholar: Staats Battle

Present University: University of Limerick

US League: ACC

Club/Community Partner: UL Eagles

Alma Mater: North Carolina State University

Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland

 

Finally, the tournament I’ve been hearing about all year has come to Belfast! Since I arrived, everyone I’ve met through the sport of basketball has brought up the annual event and described it as their equivalent to an “ESPN event” or AAU nationals.  Each year, Varsities moves to another city on the Emerald Isle, as last year it was hosted in Dublin, and the year before that in Limerick.  All of us Victory Scholars have been placed on the committee to help organize the event and I am quickly realizing that there is a good deal that goes into putting it all together.

 

There are two levels of competition, the A league and the B league, set to compete in games across three separate venues in and around Belfast. Since our women’s team at Ulster University won the B league tournament last year, we’ve been moved up to the A league this year, and we face some tough competition in teams that include our fellow scholars such as Kelsey, Christine, Jen, and Jess.

 

The tournament spans over a course of three days, and on the first day we had a game at 9AM. It was definitely the first time I’ve played that early since AAU, but I loved it. The facilities here at UUJ were buzzing with people and we actually had a nice amount of spectators at our game, which helped us all to wake up and play with a lot of energy. We came up just short after being ahead the whole game, but we returned later in the day for a good win over IT Carlow. The next day, we got to play Kelsey and the Limerick squad, and though we didn’t make it to the final, it was so much fun to watch Jen and Christine win it all with Trinity, and especially to see Christine accept the MVP award.

 

Each night of the tournament, all of the players, coaches, and even referees got together to blow of some steam at several clubs within Belfast. It was nice to be able to mingle with everyone and especially fun to listen to the variety of accents from athletes from all over Ireland. For those heavily invested in the basketball world here in Ireland, I can easily see why this tournament is something that is so anticipated each year and I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of it. Caroline and I decided, (now that we have friends in Galway) that we may even come back to take part in all the craic of next year’s Varsities as well. 

What’s up everyone?!

Is it me or did January just pass by in a blink of an eye? It was the fourth week back at work and I made sure I took advantage of it. 

First thing, school has started to pick up as our professors have started assigning our major term projects. Most the assignments should be very enlightening. The cross cultural international business project has been the one I’ve spent the most time on. Orchestrating the rendez-vous with the team members (who by the way all live in different time zones) has been somewhat of a challenge, but besides that, the project has been going well! 

Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve been working on the fundamentals of passing with my girls from the National School. I really think they have gotten better and that their accuracy and technique has improved significantly. This week, we worked on some very basic ball handling drills. For the most part, the drills I’ve been running barely had any dribbling in them. Making sure the girls kept their eyes off the ball and in front of them when handling it was a point of emphasis. 

The Titan’s Academy sessions also went well even though the number of kids at the sessions are starting to increase at an alarming pace! At one point we had close to 50 kids running around in the gym! These kids sure love their basketball (and their coaches!). 

My third session this Saturday consists of the 15-17 year olds. I really enjoy coaching these kids as they tend to listen very closely to the instructions I give throughout practice. We still have a lot of work to do, but with what I’ve got planned for these guys over the next few weeks, I’ve got a feeling that things will be just fine… 

The Titan’s National League team is playing in Cork Sunday afternoon. We have a 3h drive prior to the game, so that’ll be a little rough on the body. We’ve had good training sessions this week, so we’re ready to play a physical and smart game tomorrow. 

Wish us luck!

Hey guys,

Happy February to all. As Will said, the month of January absolutely flew by! Now we’re on to February (my birthday month, which is awesome!). 

This past week was certainly a busy one between coaching, school, and training. From the coaching side, I was at St. Pat’s a few days and even had the chance to work with a couple new groups of students which was exciting. What was frustrating, however, is that one of my groups of boys that I’ve had for the last few months and who have showed significant improvement thus far, had a pretty off day. It was a day where they simply wouldn’t follow directions, kept talking or messing around while I was talking, or were simply being disrespectful towards me as well as each other. I ended up punishing them accordingly with sprints, push ups, sit ups, and squats. In fairness, they did the exercises very well. Once the punishment was over, they got back to the lay up drills we were working on and finished the session very well. However, they were not allowed to play any games, or “matches” as they would say because I told them that they did not earn the right to play games. Their teacher came in towards the end and informed me that she had had problems with them that day too. So hopefully it was just a bad day and next week will be better which I’m counting on!

As far as some other coaching goes, I had a great session with the Titans U-16 girls team. They started off a little slow in practice but once they got into the flow of practice they were outstanding! We even did one lay up drill where they had to make 40 lay ups in 2 minutes, something they had never been able to do before, and this time they made 51! I was so impressed by their efforts and thrilled by the improvements they’ve shown. The Titans U-18 boys have had a couple great training sessions over the last week. Like I’ve said previously, it’s a nice change of pace coaching the older boys because I can do some things differently and some different drills than I do with the boys at St. Pat’s and young groups I have at the Titans Academy Saturday mornings. One big challenge with the U-18’s however, is that since the boys are a bit older, it is a bit more difficult to break some old bad habits that they’ve developed. Nonetheless, they’re making HUGE strides and really starting to come together as a team, similar to our Titans National League team.

School was busy this week as we’re full into the swing of the semester. The first week or two usually run a little slow, but now we’re starting to receive our assignments and deadlines will be fast approaching. I also had my first conference call as part of my Global Business project. It was tough setting up a time and one group member from Hawaii ended up not being a part of the call. However, he has stayed in constant contact with the rest of the group and we’re going to try another call this week with everyone. On Wednesday, our course director asked myself and several other students to join him and a couple professors at the Post-Graduate Fair held on campus. We were to stand at the International Management booth and help answer questions and speak with students who may be interested in applying to the program. It was a great time and I was happy to help other students out. I think myself and my classmates did a good job describing the program and generating interest in International Management.

It’s down to Cork for the National League team tomorrow. We had last weekend off which was nice, but tomorrow it’s back to business. Wish us luck!!
-Tim

After completing an entire semester and a few weeks of the current one, I had an “ah-ha” moment. This epiphany only happened after deciding on my research paper topic and learning about one of the companies my class has the opportunity to work with.

 

For starters, in my Marketing Leadership module, my professor told us that our live project was with Adidas! We spent some time in class watching some of their most recent advertisements to learn about their current marketing strategy. Next week, a member from the Adidas team is coming in to speak with us about what we will be working on. To say the least, I am very excited!

 

With that idea in mind, I developed my research paper topic around the idea of sports marketing. More specifically, I am going to look at the impact of professional athletes endorsing brands and products. I did this to hopefully learn more about the topic while ensuring that I do a topic that I really enjoy.

 

It was only until after hearing about the Adidas opportunity and developing my research paper topic, that I realized I could connect work with sport. It dawned on me that I don’t have to give up sport forever. I can incorporate it into many different aspects of my life, even if I can’t actually play. By entering the University of Limerick’s master’s course of marketing, a new realm of interests and opportunities has become apparent to me. I may have finally found an area of expertise that I would like to pursue even after my studying is completed! I am very excited to learn more about this area of marketing, and I hope my interest for the topic and knowledge only grows from these two projects. 

 

 

Victory Scholar: Sarah Benedetti

Present University: University of Limerick

US League: NEC

Club/Community Partner: UL Huskies

Alma Mater: St. Francis College 

Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland