Tralee Warriors Basketball Club, also known as Garvey's Tralee Warriors for sponsorship reasons, is an Irish

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

club based in

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in County ...

that currently consists of a men's team that competes in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

, as well as an Under 20s side. Their home arena is the Tralee Sports Complex.

History

In May 2016, a new Tralee basketball team was inducted into the

for the 2016–17 season. The team came about after a collaboration between local clubs Tralee Imperials and St Brendan's. Tralee's return to National League basketball, having previously hosted a team called

Tralee Tigers Tralee Tigers was an Irish basketball team based in Tralee, County Kerry. The team competed in the SuperLeague and were champions in 1995–96, 2003–04 and 2007–08. They also won the Irish National Championship in 2001–02, and won two Natio ...

, brought with it one of Ireland's best known basketball players,

Kieran Donaghy Kieran Donaghy (born 1 March 1983) is an Irish Gaelic footballer and basketball player. He plays for Tralee club Austin Stacks and, formerly, at senior level for the Kerry county team. Donaghy won four All-Ireland Senior Football Championship m ...

. Donaghy, a dual

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er and basketball player, played for St Brendan's in 2015–16 and was a big part of Tralee Tigers in the early 2000s. Originally set up as Tralee Town BC, the club was officially named Tralee Warriors Basketball Club, with their crest and colours being launched in July 2016. On 23 September 2016, Tralee Warriors made their debut in the Super League with a 92–77 loss to

UCC Demons UCC Demons are an Irish basketball team based in Cork. The team competes in the Super League and plays its home games at Mardyke Arena. The team is a division of Blue Demons Basketball Club and is directly associated with the University College ...

. On 2 April 2017, Tralee Warriors were crowned Champions Trophy winners after defeating league champions

Templeogue Templeogue () is a southwestern suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It lies between the River Poddle and River Dodder, and is about halfway from Dublin's centre to the mountains to the south. Geography Location The centre of Templeogue is from bo ...

in the final. Tralee were led by American guard Trae Pemberton (21 points, 9 rebounds), Serbian forward Goran Pantovic (15 points, 18 rebounds), and game MVP Kieran Donaghy (15 points, 16 rebounds, 8 assists). For the season, Pemberton was named Men's Super League Player of the Year, Ryan Leonard was named Men's Super League Young Player of the Year, and Head Coach Mark Bernsen made it a Kerry treble by scooping the Men's Super League Coach of the Year. In March 2018, Tralee Warriors returned to the Champions Trophy final, where they defended their title with a 73–61 win over Templeogue. Guard Paul Dick was named MVP of the final after scoring 22 points. In March 2019, Tralee Warriors were crowned champions of the Super League for the first time, as they finished on top of the table with a league-best 16–4 record. In January 2022, Tralee Warriors won the Irish National Cup with an 88–75 win over

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

in the final. Forward Daniel Jokubaitis was named MVP of the final after scoring 19 points. They went on to win the League championship in April with a 78–72 victory over Neptune in the playoff final. Guard Aaron Calixte was named MVP of the final after scoring 21 points.

Honours

*Champions (2):

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Irish National Cup *Champions (1):

References

External links

* {{Irish Super League 2016 establishments in Ireland Basketball teams established in 2016 Super League (Ireland) teams Sports clubs in County Kerry Sport in Tralee