Portlaoise Panthers pair Brophy and Howson set to play Stateside next season

PORTLAOISE Panthers have seen two more of their players secure exciting moves to the United States to play basketball next season.

Less than three months after clubmate, Shannon Quigley locked down a four-year scholarship with St Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, where she will compete in the NCAA Division Two ranks, both Caoimhe Brophy and Cormac Howson have also secured moves across ‘the pond’.

While Brophy is set to join Kent Prep School in Connecticut, Howson will line out with Redemption Point Christian Academy in New York, both players heading Stateside at the end of the month, and they hope to remain there for the next year at least.

For Howson and Brophy, this is an opportunity they have been working towards for quite some time and both players are relishing the chance to play NEPSAC (New England Prep School Athletic Council) basketball over the coming season.

“I'm really excited,” Brophy told the Laois Nationalist. “It’s always been a dream of mine to go and play in the States.

“I'd known of the NEPSAC area, which is the league I'll be playing in. I'd done a bit of research on the schools in that, and it's quite an academically rigorous area for prep schools, so I knew that I wanted that opportunity as well. It just sets you up for college even more.

“I contacted a lot of the schools and then it was all about deciding what school to go to after that. Doing a one-year post-graduate, I feel it's not too big of a leap, so I'm excited to go over, have a good year and get into the college recruiting process then,” she explained.

Similarly, Howson is happy to get the opportunity to test the waters of US basketball with Redemption Point Christian Academy.

“I'm happy that it's just for a year and not a four-year contract because, at the end of the day, I've never been to America. I don't know what it's going to be like.

“We have to wake up at 4.50am every morning for practice, so if I don't like it, I always have the opportunity to come home, meet with my old friends, and even join the National League.

“But it's a surreal feeling to be going, because I used to tell everyone that my dream was to play basketball in America, being at the top level.

“I'm not one of those guys who was a natural talent from a young level. I started off on the C team, went to the B team and I didn't make the A team until my fourth season in Panthers, so that's a big jump.

“But I used to tell people my dream was to play basketball in America and they’d laugh, to be honest. And so, the fact that it’s happening for real is unbelievable,” he said.

For Brophy, who played most of her basketball with Ballyroan Bluestars before making the move to Portlaoise Panthers, the opportunity to just train among Super League players seriously helped in her development.

The 18-year-old point guard has long been identified as a rising talent having helped Heywood Community School to All-Ireland Under 19 Girls ‘C’ and ‘B’ League success over recent seasons.

Certainly all that experience on the club and schools front will stand to her as she prepares to take that next step in her development with Kent Prep School.

“I just transferred from Ballyroan to Portlaoise this year, so this was my first season with Panthers,” said the Shanahoe woman. “I moved really just to get an opportunity to play with the Super League team.

“I got a few minutes here and there with the Super League team, but it was a great experience to train with them and just a completely different environment,” she remarked.

Howson has also benefitted hugely from top-level basketball on both club and school fronts over the past year, the young Portlaoise shooting guard emerging top scorer on 20 points for St Mary’s CBS in their All-Ireland Under 19A Schools Cup final victory over St Muredach’s College in the National Basketball Arena back in January.

The Portlaoise school went extremely close to making it an All-Ireland double, but were pipped 61-58 in the Under 19A League final by Coláiste Éanna the following month, despite Howson again recording an impressive 20-point haul.

Certainly the support of St Mary’s CBS itself was a key factor in helping Howson secure a move to the US as he explained.

“The teachers in my school were very helpful. They let me use the transition year to record the games, and because of that, I was able to create a highlight video which I sent to all the American coaches, and luckily one got back to me and here we are,” he said.

Howson’s progress on the club front with Portlaoise has been nothing short of a remarkable, the local lad starting out with the club when he was in his final year in primary school.

Working his way up through the age groups and ranks, he was eventually invited to join the club’s National League team by head coach, Jack Scully, who, himself, also oversaw St Mary’s CBS’ All-Ireland success.

“When Jack Scully asked me two years ago if I would be interested in training with the National League team I took that opportunity in a heartbeat. I was only 16 when I started, so I knew from the beginning that those guys with 10, 15 years of experience would get more minutes than me, and that's true, they did.

“But I went to all the trainings, even during Leaving Cert when I had exams to be worried about. I locked in and I used all that as a stepping stone to help me get better at basketball,” he explained.

Now on the brink of realising a long-term dream of playing the sport Stateside, Howson is hugely grateful to all of those players and club members who have helped propel him this far.

“I remember when I was younger, I used to seek advice from a lot of the older players who would be around my age now,” he recalled.

“Back when I was 13, 14, 15, that meant the world to me, because it's everything, seeing that an older player actually wants to listen to you and wants to see you get better.

“So whenever there's a younger player who asks me for advice, I'm always happy to help and respond to them straight away,” he said.