East Cavan Eagles’ inclusion programme a major success
Basketball
East Cavan Eagles Basketball Club is based in Virginia College, Co. Cavan and boosts 18 different teams, with approximately 300 members. The Club caters for boys and girls from seven years old to adult. The Club competes in the North East league which includes 12 clubs from Cavan, Monaghan, Meath and Louth.
This year Eagles introduced a new Inclusion Team for boys and girls aged 8 to 18 with additional needs. The Programme is co-ordinated by Eagles Inclusion Officer Ben Kelly Flynn who said that the aim is to give everyone the opportunity to enjoy the sport of basketball. The Inclusion Team, which started on October 2 last, train once a week at the Show Centre in Virginia and the programme runs for 10 weeks up to Christmas and 10 weeks after Christmas. This new initiative has been a great success with 20 players training each week. Many of the Inclusion players have brothers and sisters playing basketball with Eagles.
Club Chairman Graham Tolan said: "As we approach the tenth anniversary of the establishment of our Club, we are looking to the future with great excitement about the direction the Club is going. We have been working with the Virginia Show Centre to develop a basketball court which would provide us with much needed access to additional facilities, and we are hoping to make the leap to play in the National League in the near future.
"But one of the most satisfying developments in recent years has been the introduction of our Inclusion Team. We are lucky to have a person of Ben's calibre leading this important programme. Our Inclusion coaching team also includes a number of our senior players, parents and siblings of our Inclusion players.
"The support we received from Cavan Sports Partnership and Basketball Ireland was key to getting the programme up and running. The next step for our programme is to consolidate the progress we have made, with a view to increasing our capacity for new players next season and to link in with other Clubs and to arrange games against them."