An Islington basketball club is gearing up for its first ever international game.
Islington Panthers Basketball Club will face Father Matthews Basketball Club from Cork, Ireland in a friendly at the end of the month.
Yasmin Maevor, the team’s club secretary said it was part of a landmark year for the team.
“This is our first ever international match,” she said. “It will hopefully be the first of many because this is a great connection to have.
“It came about because the guy that does our website has a connection with Father Matthews’ club; our coach spoke to his coach and they decided to come down to play us in London.”
The Islington Panthers club was set up in 2002, after Guy Lawrence, a senior youth worker in Islington, realised that many young people in the borough wanted to play basketball.
Since then, they’ve gone from strength to strength, playing in national and local leagues featuring in a documentary and in 2008 made by the Cornwallis Film and Video Club.
Now, the club trains under 12s, under 14s, under 15s and under 21s.
Ms Maevor said: “We’re training on a regular basis to prepare for the match, it’ll be great for our under 12 and under 14s team. They love having friendlys and it helps them get better; the more competitive games they have the better their play. Our under 14s even made the playoffs [finals] of the Central Venue League this year. The kids love it they want to come and play and their parents love it, they can get to know different people and it’s good for their health.
“What’s really good about our club is that it’s free and we get lots of emails from parents asking for their children to come along. We train twice a week in St Aloysius School, which means that a lot of our players are from there, but other schools are also involved. We’re also appealing for more girls to get involved in the team because we don’t have a girls’ squad anymore.”
The game is scheduled for 1pm on Tuesday, 30th March at St Aloysius School in Hornsey Lane.
