THE Rose Hotel was the venue last night as a local basketball club honoured its players at their annual awards.
Tralee Imperials has over 300 members and many of them were there to see Daire Kennelly receive a special trophy to mark his participation with the Irish Under 16 team at the European Championships last summer.
“It was a huge thing for our club because we’re only coaching boys in the last six years,” said John Dowling of Tralee Imperials. “To have someone so quickly on the international scene is great. Now he is on the Under 17 Irish training squad and he has been training with the Warriors for the past two years.”
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Of course they were also celebrating an All-Ireland success.
“Our Under 16 girls are the toast of the night after winning the Under 16B AIC Championship around two weeks ago. They had to play six games in two days which was tough going but we’re delighted that they came through,” said John.
The list of award winners is as follows (scroll down for photos):
U11 girls Blue Team — MVP Kelly Fitzgerald MIP Lisa Slattery
U11 girls Purple Team — MVP Grainne Breen MIP Kayla O’Connor
U12 girls — MIP Orlaith Clifford MVP Lucy O’Donnell
U12b girls — MIP Lily Cregan MVP Saoirse Moriarty
U12 boys — MIP Johnny Dawson MVP Tomas Kennedy
U14 boys — MIP Cian Mason MVP Darragh O’Connor
U16 boys — MIP Brian Godley MVP Ziggy Kalekaite