A BASKETBALL team that can trace its roots back to the famous Belfast Celtics took to the court for their first game last weekend.
The Poyntzpass Pumas racked up 30 points on the way to beating Newry City U12s at the Abbey CBS last Saturday - it was a confidence-boosting start that coach Paul Convery hopes has laid solid foundations for the fledgling club.
Convery started the rural county Armagh club in February and was delighted with how the team performed in their first game on a full-size court.
“I was really taken aback because I’d never seen them on a full court,” he said.
“They’re a great bunch of players, great lads.”
The fledgling Pumas have a direct link to the famous Belfast Celtics sides of the 1960s. The Celtics were Irish senior champions in 1962 and took on Spanish kingpins Real Madrid in front of 8,500 people at King’s Hall back on October 29 1963.
Among the driving forces on the team was the late Eamonn Brennan, later to become coach at Queen’s University, where he passed on his love of the game to Convery.
“I had only really played Gaelic football before I went to Queen’s and I was as green as grass, but Eamonn was a mentor for me,” Convery said.
“In my three years at Queen’s, we won the All-Ireland league twice and represented Ireland as Irish varsities champions in Belgium and came runners-up. Then, Eamonn coached the Queen’s Graduates club and we won the Irish Cup and the Premier League a couple of times.”
Convery added: “I always told Eamonn I would set up a wee club in Poyntzpass and I know he would have been smiling down if he saw what the boys did in Newry on Saturday.
“The portable baskets we have in Poyntzpass came from money he raised and coerced from the Sports Council of Northern Ireland for rural clubs all round Down and Armagh.”
Those baskets and the small hall have allowed him to start the club and Convery hopes to build on the early success: “We’re going to organise a follow-up friendly in Belfast, which will be a nice test to see where they are,” he said.
“My plan would be to take them through U12, U14, U16… and then, as the club grows and the interest grows, I would expect more to come.”
