LONG READ: Thurles boy shoots hoops for Ireland just days before Junior Cert

For most teenagers, the weekend before the start of the Junior Cert state exams would be reserved for some last minute revision coupled with some much needed downtime and a bit of Netflix.

Jamie Connor was busy living up to his name as one of Tipperary’s finest basketballing prospects by representing Ireland at the U15’s Four Nations Cup.

He and his mother Lorraine Connor, Chairperson of Tipperary Talons, spoke to the Tipperary Star about his near ten-year relationship with basketball, the pressures of representing school, club and country as a teenager, and hopes for the future.

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“I started playing when I was about six,” Jamie began.

“Obviously back then I was just meeting up with some of my friends once in a little while, having the craic, and trying it out. I played a bit of soccer too, but as I grew older I just started focusing more on the basketball side of things.”

“It takes a bit of time to get used to it, as a sport. It’s very different to most of the other sports. It’s tough because there’s so much running involved when there’s only five people in total on the court. But once you play it for long enough and get the hang of everything that’s involved it’s not actually too bad.”

Jamie’s love of the sport never wavered as he navigated primary school. At the age of 15, he now finds himself part of the Tipp Talons set-up and also his school team at the CBS in Thurles.

“It’s a lot tougher nowadays of course, because you’re trying to get used to playing different types of teams from all over the country and there’s a lot more stuff you need to know tactically when you’re being coached and playing at an older age. All the different set plays, positions, and in-game tactics you need to just get them into your head and keep going!”

Just last year, Jamie helped guide the CBS Thurles team to an All-Ireland final in the national B-league, an achievement that saw promoted to the A-league, the only school in Tipperary currently competing at the highest level.

“The school set-up tends to feel quite different than the club for me, because the club is mostly people that are committed to basketball, whereas the school gets everybody involved and everyone is allowed to come in and play. A lot of people in the school come in and just do it for the craic, but that’s what you want sometimes as well, people just playing for the fun of it.”

Jamie’s hard work for the Talons and the CBS really paid off earlier this year when he was selected as one of twelve boys nationally to represent Ireland at the Four Nations Cup in Manchester, a real ‘pinch me’ moment for the 15-year-old.

“Yeah it was just great excitement all round really and there was lots of congratulations from friends and family, which you’d be really thankful for. You know you’d just be really looking forward to travelling with the rest of the team, meeting new people, and playing against other countries.”

Jamie’s mother Lorraine Connor also works as the Chairperson for the Tipp Talons, and told the Tipperary Star just what’s involved in a prospect like Jamie becoming part of the national set-up.

“The way it works with basketball in Ireland is you start off on a pathway through the various academies. So Jamie for example made both the U14 and U15 academies a year younger than is normally expected and spent two years on each panel.

“Up until Christmas Jamie was part of the U16 squad and made the final 32 boys considered for that panel. A lenghty injury meant he was released from the U16s towards the end of 2024, which was unfortunate.

“From there he focused solely on solidifying his place on the U15 panel. They would have regular meet-ups where all the best players in the country from the regional academies would come together and play together. It was from those get-togethers that the coaches involved in the national set-up selected who they felt to be the best 12 to be part of the Irish U15s squad to go play in the Four Nations tournament.”

This was Jamie’s first experience of playing basketball abroad at this level. The Four Nations tournament, which included Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales, took place in Manchester this year.

“It was great,” Jamie insisted.

“Really exciting going off to a different country, something I’d never done before and having the opportunity to play against players I’d never seen.

“I got to play such strong competition. Even though representing your country is really tough and I was definitely nervous going into it, I just tried to keep the head, stay as calm as possible, and not stress too much.”

Lorraine Connor was quick to add that Jamie produced a very strong performance against what was a formidable England team.

“I think he scored seven points against England and four points against Wales. And he played minutes in all three of the games that saw Ireland finished second in that tournament overall.

“But particularly against England, they would have been training a lot longer than the Irish boys would have been of the way it’s structured. A lot of this is still very new to Basketball Ireland. It’s first time they've kind of done it.

“They hadn’t really had much team training just as the group of 12 together, they really had only one night on the court together to get to know each others as players, work on tactics and set plays and all the rest of it.

“So England would have expected to give them a good beating, you’d say, but Ireland actually had a really good game against England. England were much bigger than us, but the boys were fantastic.

“They ended up losing by 15 points in the end, but for a lot of the game they had them. They were right in it in the beginning and they had them to within seven points in the third quarter. So England were really rattled and in a game they weren't expecting until the closing minutes in Manchester.”

Both Lorraine and Jamie talked openly about how lucky they both are to be surrounded by good coaches and mentors in Tipperary for a sport that wouldn’t be among the most played in the country.

“I would have coached Jamie when he was younger,” Lorraine explained.

“When he was 12 we won a Munster league together, back in the day! Then Niall Berry, a coach that would have been involved in the set-up when I was coming through the club and has been all over Ireland and America with basketball coaching, he’s been coaching Jamie in school and at the club for the past few years.

“Niall is actually the head coach for Ireland’s U18 men, so Jamie's been lucky to get that kind of access to these kinds of internationally recognised coaches which would be new enough to Tipperary.”

Jamie concluded that despite “getting old” as he prepares to make the leap to the U16s panel, he hopes to stay involved with the national set-up for years to comes and to continue winning trophies for school and club along the way.

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