Panthers stalwart Cillian O’Connell makes the move to Lee Academy 

CILLIAN O’Connell is the latest young player from Portlaoise Panthers to secure a move to the United States to play basketball this season.

The highly-rated point guard, last Wednesday, flew out to Lee Academy in Maine where he will compete in the NEPSAC AAA ranks over the coming year.

For O’Connell, who, up until now, has played all his basketball with Portlaoise, the move across ‘the pond’ is the fulfilment of a long-term goal and a challenge he is ready to totally embrace.

“It's just something I’ve always wanted to do since I was very young,” O’Connell told the *****Laois Nationalist*****.

“I started getting in contact with a few schools and rounded it down to a couple. Lee Academy seemed like the best fit for me, so I chose to go there.

“I'm gone from now to Christmas and then I'm back for another four or five months after Christmas, so I'll be eight or nine months over here.

“I’m really excited. It's a new experience, it's a new league, and really, it's a clean slate now,” he said.

O’Connell has made this major move, bolstered by an incredible season of basketball that saw him captain St Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise to the All-Ireland Under 19A Schools Cup title for the very first time, while also playing a significant part in Portlaoise Panthers’ march to both the President’s National Cup and Division One play-off finals, where they were edged out on both counts by Limerick Celtics.

“For the school to go and win the Under 19A All-Ireland Cup for the first time and to be the captain of that team was obviously very special,” said O’Connell, who chalked up 11 points in the team’s unforgettable 67-58 victory over St Muredach’s College in the decider.

“Just to break the ceiling there for the school and push on and actually win it, it was just amazing.

“And then with the club, to get to the National Cup and National League finals was really special.

“We lost both of them, but even just getting to those finals was a really big step for the club. It’s somewhere we've never been.

“So overall, we made a big jump in both the club and the school last season, and it was great to be a part of all that.

“You're coming away with a huge confidence boost when you're on two of the best teams in the country in their own division and age group,” he said.

O’Connell is the fourth player from Portlaoise Panthers to land a move to the US this summer, following in the path of Caoimhe Brophy, Shannon Quigley and former club and school team mate Cormac Howson.

Quigley secured a four-year scholarship with St Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, where she will compete in the NCAA Division Two ranks, while Brophy has teamed up with Kent Prep School in Connecticut and Howson lines out with Redemption Point Christian Academy in New York.

For O’Connell, the growing numbers of players heading to the US from Portlaoise is testament to the huge work that is being carried out in the club in an effort to see players develop at a higher level.

And this has been reflected in the success of Portlaoise Panthers who are currently represented strongly in the Women’s Super League and Men’s National League Division One ranks, with a string of underage sides also competing superbly in regional and national competitions.

“It just shows the development that’s been happening at the club over the last couple years,” remarked O’Connell.

“To have four players in the club go abroad this year, two lads and two girls, it really does show the work that’s being put in there in Portlaoise,” he said.

While Portlaoise men’s team head coach, Jack Scully is delighted to see another of his young protégés earn the chance to test themselves in America, he is sorry to lose another of the club’s stalwarts.

“I’ve been coaching Cillian since he was 11-years-old,” Scully told the ****Laois Nationalist****. “He’s been with me the whole way up.

“He’s a phenomenal player, a phenomenal team mate. He’s an extremely hard worker, he’s extremely humble and he’ll be a huge loss to the team, but this is something he’s always wanted to do. He’s been there through all the success we’ve had over the last couple of years.

“He captained the schools team to the All-Ireland Schools Cup last season and he’s been in the National League team for the past three seasons.

“He’s one of the best underage players to have come through the club and I’m delighted to see him go and move on further in his basketball career, but, at the same time, I’ll miss him terribly,” he said.

Yet O’Connell still very much envisages a return to his home club, stressing: “I’m really excited about this opportunity, but I love Portlaoise and I want to go back and play there after I do a few years in the States.”