Ireland U18 men's head coach selects initial squad of 35 for 2024/25 season

Ireland U18 men's head coach Niall Berry has selected a panel of 35 players to work with at the outset of the 2024/25 international season. 

Three players who featured for Berry at this summer's FIBA U18 Men's Youth EuroBasket remain eligible for selection and return. Adam Charles (Éanna BC), Darragh Horkan (Limerick Lions) and Matiss Ogle (St Declans BC) were among the roster which finished in 11th position earlier this summer with a 5-3 record in the tournament, while the majority of the remainder of the group have previously played for Ireland at U16 level or have come throught the Basketball Ireland U17 Academy programme. 

Players make the grade from seven counties, Dublin, Cork, Laois, Louth, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. Éanna BC are the club with the highest number of selections with four, alongside Titans BC, they are closely followed by Portlaoise Panthers, who send three players. Charlie  Marcoullier, Kieran Quinn, Lorcan Bailey-Morrow (USA), Oisin O'Hanlon and Patryk McGlynn (Spain) are the players based overseas who have been selected for the initial squad. 

Speaking following the announcement of his squad, head coach Niall Berry said: 

“I am delighted to announce this squad of 35 players moving forward in this year’s U18 men’s programme. After much deliberation we are very confident that each of the players progressing have earned the right to be evaluated further with the goal of being part of our FIBA Youth EuroBasket squad next summer.

We leaned heavily on the feedback from coaches in last year’s U17 Academy programme, as well as feedback from the staff of last year’s U16 men’s programme. This combined with two intensive try-out days makes us very confident we have identified the right players to move forward in the selection process. There are also a number of players based outside of Ireland who will receive a try-out for the programme over the Christmas period. The level of talent in this group is a testament to the work done by each player with previous international coaches, the academy programme, and their development at local club level. It is now up to each one of them to put their best foot forward in showing us their value to the team as we proceed toward international competition in the coming months.

There is always difficult decisions to make and we hope that players who didn’t make this cut will use it as a motivation to focus their development and come back for future programs as so many top Irish international players have done in the past”.

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Ireland U18 men's initial squad 2024/25:

Adam Charles (Éanna BC), Adam Kiwanuka (Ballincollig BC), Adam McCarthy (Éanna BC), Arthur Chololejenko (Tolka Rovers), Charlie  Marcoullier (Christian Brothers Academy), Darragh Horkan (Limerick Lions), Darragh Russell (St Declans BC), Dylan O’Rourke (Neptune BC), Eoin Cleary (Moycullen BC), Eoin Potitto (Titans BC), Franciszek Chmielecki (Dundalk Ravens), Harry Lynch (Éanna BC), James Power (UCD Marian), Jayden Umeh (Portlaoise Panthers), John Broderick (Killester BC), Kareem Matonmi (Templeogue BC), Kieran Quinn (Gill St. Bernard’s), Kirill Yakovlev (Limerick Lions), Lorcan Bailey Morrow (Portledge High School), Luca Maloney (Waterford Vikings), Luke Kavanagh (Portlaoise Panthers), Molua Mac Seain (Youghal BC), Marco Mendoza (Dublin Sonics & St Declans BC), Matiss Ogle (St Declans BC), Nathan Gbinigie (Titans BC), Oisin O'Hanlon (CD Don Bosco, Valencia, Spain), Oisin Toibin (Ballincollig BC), Patryk McGlynn (Picken Claret Valenica, Spain), Piers Postma (UCD Marian), Riley Comerford (Portlaoise Panthers), Ryan Bell (Éanna BC), Shareef Elmahi (Dublin Lions), Stephan Owede (Titans BC), Theo Quinn (Tolka Rovers), Valentino Edobor (Titans BC).