Top basketballer still putting opponents through the hoops

Oranmore native Claire Rockall is a basketballer on top of her game right now. This was reinforced just last week when she was awarded the ‘Player of the Month’ award for the second time this season following another string of good performances for Super League outfit, Ambassador UCC Glanmire.

Rockall, though, has always been a model of consistency and there are many in Cork who would say the Player of the Month accolade reflects the leadership the Irish international has shown. For at the start of the season, there were those who felt the side would struggle after losing a number of players due to family commitments and transfers. That has not been the case.

In late January, Ambassador UCC Glanmire won their fourth consecutive women’s National Cup with a 61-48 victory over Courtyard Liffey Celtics in Tallaght while this weekend they make their bid for a place in the Super League final when they face Pyrobel Killester in the penultimate stage of the competition in Waterford IT. DCU Mercy and Courtyard Liffey Celtics contest the other semi-final.

“We are having a good season so far; it is great,” begins the 26-year-old Galwegian. “We closed out the regular season with two games to play in the league so we have the semi-final next weekend in Waterford against Killester and, hopefully, if we get through that it will be the league final the following weekend. And then it will be all over for another year.

“So, yeah, I am really enjoying it. As I said, we lost some of our experienced players last year for different reasons so it is great that we are still able to compete and still be successful. So, that has been enjoyable.”

Rockall has played with Glanmire for seven seasons in all – missing an eighth due to an ACL injury – since 2009 when she began her studies in UCC. This was after spending a year at Iowa University where she had accepted a basketball scholarship.

“It was a scholarship for four years but I actually decided to come home after one. It was a brilliant experience and I don’t regret going at all – I got to see a lot of the different states and our team was quite successful – but I felt the style of basketball that they played in that particular university was a bit different to the basketball which I am used to in Ireland.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.