Individual Success
MATTHEW O’CONNOR UK BRITISH BASKETBALL FINALS U14’s
A year and a half ago I decided I wanted to have a go at playing basketball. I had never played before, and thought it would be fun and a good way of keeping fit. I contacted the City of Birmingham Basketball Club and they asked me to go along and see what I thought. I liked it, so I joined the club.
As I had joined half way through the season I was not in the team so was not allowed to play in any of the league games, but I didn’t mind as I couldn’t play that well and didn’t know all of the rules.
Every June the club runs trials to pick the next seasons teams, but in June 2006 I was in France with the school so I missed the trials, but lucky for me, my coach wanted me in the team and put me forward .
We trained every Thursday and Saturday and played some friendly games in preparation for the Midlands tournament which began in November. We played 16 games and won every game, scoring 1169 points to 354 against. This meant we qualified for the England Basketball League.
Our first game in this league was against York, which we won 106-28. We then played Solent and won 73-53, putting us through to the Final Fours with Manchester, Sheffield and West Minster.
The Final Fours were held at RAF Cosford on 13th May 2007 and the atmosphere was buzzing. Loads of supporters turned up to cheer all the teams on and we had a brilliant day.
We played a close fought game against Sheffield in the semi final and won 61-57 and we were all really excited to be through to the final against Manchester as we had played them twice in friendly games earlier in the season and had beat them both times.
We had to wait 4 hours to play in the final and by that time we were all very tired. Manchester played a great game and deserved to win beating us 94-50. This put City of Birmingham in second place in England. We were disappointed with losing but pleased to be the first Birmingham team to get that far in the history of the club. We all received silver medals and I am very proud of my, and the teams achievement.
I am playing basketball at the highest level for my age in the country and have just been selected to represent City of Birmingham in a tournament at the Killester Basketball Club in Dublin, which I am really looking forward to.
I am going to trial for the under 15’s and under 16’s teams on 30thJune and hope I get picked.
My ambition is to keep improving my game and go on to play professionally.
The club is always looking for new players so if anyone is interested, Rob Palmer (Head Coach) can be contacted on 0121 464 6048 or by email at cobbasketball@hotmail.co.uk
Matt O’Connor.