Basketball                                                    
 This has so far been an excellent year for basketball. Increased participation numbers, medal winning u16 team and an excellent panel of 1st years. St. Pauls are now one of the very few schools in the area with basketball teams entered in all divisions.

U/19
This is the first u19 Basketball team competing in competition for over two years. In the cup competition we progressed to the 2nd round beating Rockwell College, however, in our 2nd round game we lost to last year’s winners De La Salle Churchtown in a nail biting 1 point loss. The team also competed in the Dublin league and finished 3rd in their group beating Coolmine (with Stephen Campion scoring a school record 36 points).  We defeated Hartstown while losing to close games to Chanel and Portmarnock. and St. Aidans.   I expect this team to go on to bigger and better things next year.

Squad (J. O'Brien, K. Richardson, M. Purcell, S. Campion , V. Mirollo, A. Ashali, S. Real, R. Real, J. Moulonso, S. McMahon)

U/16
With a team composed mainly of 2nd year’s this team participated only in the cup as rules limit the number of 2nd years playing in league games. They had an excellent run in the cup competition beating Blackrock College in the first round. Patrician College Ballyfinn were our opponents in the second round and they came out firing taking an early lead however with Shane McMahon and Paddy Sullivan on form to the tune of 17 and 16 points respectively we pegged them back to win a thriller in overtime. Next up was a quarter final date with Marian College from Ballsbridge we went into half-time down 10 before making an excellent come back in the 2nd half to win by a score line of 49-39 with Shane McMahon top scoring on 18 and Paddy Sullivan named game MVP on 17 points. The Semi-final saw us drawn against Colaiste an Spioraid Naomh (with two U16. international players)who had convincingly beaten all challengers to-date in the competition. We were beaten on the day but considering the team is almost all underage, I think we did very well reaching the bronze medal stage.

2nd Year
Last year the team reached the Leinster /Semi-Final and we are hoping to progress further this year. The league games will be starting next week.

1st Year
With a very talented young group of players including 7 club players I think this will be a good season for them. Hopefully with enough work and a bit of luck we will bring home some silverware for the school. The league will be starting over the coming weeks.

Conor Gordan  Coach.