.
Kieran Donaghy and Darren O’Sullivan with the Champions’ Trophy at Mounthawk Secondary School on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
IT’S been some few days for Garveys Tralee Warriors.
In fact, it’s been a whirlwind eight months for the new arrivals in the Men’s Superleague.
The weekend though was something special. They faced Templeogue in the National Champions Trophy final on Sunday afternoon in Letterkenny and after Kieran Donaghy levelled to draw the match, it went to overtime.
Warriors perseverance paid off and they won by the slimmest of margins 74 to 73. Cue wild celebrations which are stretching into this week.
On Monday they took the trophy to their sponsors, Garveys Supervalu and on Tuesday it was time to tour schools around Tralee with the trophy.
Continued below…
.
As promised by past pupil Kieran Donaghy, their first stop was to CBS The Green, where they got a hero’s welcome from the staff and students of the school.
Kieran Donaghy said; “It’s been an unbelievable year, I suppose, the town has got really behind us. We have something special here that we have to cherish and continue to work on to improve. So the youngsters we’re going around to in all of the schools today have something to strive for on a basketball front.”
He continued; “We’re after winning the Champions Trophy, so we can now call ourselves the best team in Ireland. It’s been huge. Massive crowds all year, and they came to Donegal too, an eight hour journey, to support us. At the weekend, we had the biggest travelling support for the team that was the furthest away, I would say.”
When asked about his buddy, Colm Cooper’s retirement, Kieran commented; “It’ll be a tough day for all Kerry people. He epitomizes what Kerry football is about really. He’ll be missed, that’s a fact.”
After their visit to CBS, the team stopped by at Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School, where the team were welcomed by staff and students. Past pupil Darren O’Sullivan spoke to the students on the win and thanked them for their support throughout the league.
Another star player, Trae Pemberton, said of the season; “It’s been a long journey. It’ll be eight months including pre-season. A lot of us didn’t know each other coming in to it, so it really took a while for us to bond together and grow throughout the season. We had a lot of ups and downs, just like any team would go through, but we finally clicked, I would say, halfway through the season. We really came together, pulled a lot of wins together, and finally pulled it together this last weekend with two huge games. It was a good year.”
That would be an understatement Trae. Well done to the Warriors who have brought a huge boost to the town over the past number of months. Scroll down for photos…
Tralee Warriors visit Mounthawk Secondary School on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
.
Darren O’Sullivan with Mounthawk students Stella McElligott and Éidín Dowling on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
Trae Pemberton with Mounthawk students on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
.
Tralee Warriors visit CBS The Green on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
Kieran Donaghy, Ruairí O’Rahilly and Warriors’ Ryan Leonard with the Champions Trophy on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
.
Paul McMahon and Darren O’Sullivan with CBS students Niall Fitzmaurice, Amadeusz Lelental, Lawrence Guardiano and Rap Buivydas on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony
Mark Bernsen (coach) with CBS students Luke McCaffrey, Leonit Salihaj and Thomas Lyon with the Champions Trophy on Tuesday. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.
