2024 - What A Year For Phoenix BC!

2024 was easily the most successful year on court for Phoenix BC!
Firstly and by far the biggest competitive success attained by our club in our 21 year histrory was the U18 Boys National Cup win in January 2024!
In 2022 our U18 Boys had also made the final of the National Cup but they didn't get over the final hurdle - losing to Eanna.
However in 2024 after topping the first phase tournament stage with a 5&0 record our boys went on to defeat Portlaoise Panthers in the quarters, Galway Titans in the semis and then triumphed over Dublin Lions in the final on 19 January 2024 at the NBA.
Phoenix then won more all-Ireland silverware in April when the newly constituted U20 Men (Phoenix's first year competing at U20 Men National level) won the Plate final against Neptune in the final (having beaten Blue Demons in Cork in the semi-final).
At a local level our Premier Men won every trophy going and our U18s did the league and cup double. The U14 A Boys won the League Cup after a very exciting game against Belfast Star.
In 2024-25 season we entered a record 18 competitve squads across local and all-Ireland level:
U12 A + B Boys, U14 A + B Boys, U16 A + B + C Boys, U18 A + B Boys
U12, U14, U16 and U18 Girls
Premier Men, Premier Women in NI leagues
U20 Men, bIDL Men and Phoenix Rockets at National all-Ireland level
We also added a U10s squad to our pathway in November - again for the first time.
Fiontan Rogers was selected for the Ireland U18 Boys team for the 4 Nations competition.
We had many players take part in Team NI games against the likes of Wales and Dublin Region.
11 U13 boys and girls played for the Cleveland NI U13 team when they toured to Spain.
Phoenix entered three National Cup tournaments in one season - the first time we have done that.
A number of Phoenix juniors helped their schools to competitive success in 2024.
Phoenix also hosted the tournament phase of the U18 Girls National Cup for the first time in its history - on 9+10 November (won by Tolka Rovers - with Cobh BC also progressing to the quarter-finals).
Phoenix entered other prestigious tournaments:
Billy Kelly U17 Boys Tourno in Cork (Easter 24)
Michael Heffernan U18 Boys Tourno in Cork (Sept 2024)
U16 Boys Tournament in Cork (Nov 2024)
Our U18 Girls announced that they would be touring to the USA in June 2025 - and they started their fundraising drive for that in 2024.
We hosted a number of clubs from outside Ireland:
Grampian Flyers
Club Sante Fe
Panthers (Aberdeen)
We saw 6 new Phoenix-based females receive their reffing qualification,
Off the court - we started to use the new court facility at Newforge.
Awards wise we had a great year:
Tom Kearney won Sport NI's Sportmaker Award for Junior Volunteer Of The Year
Jim Martin won Basketball Ireland's Junior Coach Of The Year
The 2023-24 U18 Boys team won Lisburn & Castlereagh Council's Junior Team Of The Year
Fundraising-wise we:
held a Night At The Races evening
held a Xmas quiz
held various coffee and tray bake sales
received funding from Lisburn & Castlereagh Council for hosting the U18 Girls National Cup tourno
Outreach Work
Phoenix partnership with The Cleveland Project saw us play a key part in the school outreach programme that delivered coaching and blitzes for 5000 kids over the course of the academic year
Also involvement in the Junior NBA Programme
Phoenix ran it's Hard2Guard basketball camps in February (Half-Term), Easter, Summer, Halloween and Christmas
Phoenix ran a Spring League Series for players from all other clubs and schools
Tournaments/Tours
U17 Boys were at the Billy Kelly Tourno in Cork
U18 Boys and U16 Girls toured to Molina in Spain
We remembered members that we have lost in recent years:
Phoenix held a Ciara Ferry Memorial Womens Blitz
Phoenix hosted a Third Year of The Noah Donohoe Memorial
Phoenix supported TCC's remeberance of David Durkan at their All-Stars event