BC Werewolves are hoping to hit the ground rolling next season

Statistics rarely if ever tell the whole story and that is most definitely the case for Cookstown-based wheelchair basketball team, BC Werewolves, who finished their first ever season in the NI Wheelchair Basketball League bottom of the table and without a win.

While those latter two facts are true, they don’t give an indication of the hard work and rapid improvement the local side have put in throughout their debut campaign against clubs and players with years, upon years of experience in the sport.

The fledgling Werewolves suffered some heavy defeats early in the campaign, which is to be expected against the top class outfits at the top of the table, especially when, on occasion, the Tyrone-based side only had the bare minimum of five players available.

But as the season wore on, the Cookstown outfiit, who have players from the town, as well as Dungannon, Belfast, Castledawson, and Clonoe, have got closer and closer to their opponents and after a promising conclusion to their maiden campaign they are confident of kicking on next season.

“We’re not even going a year yet but we’ve grown a good wee team. We’re building up on it and working on our techniques in shooting, dribbles and blocks and all,” explained team member Marty Lavery, who has been impressed by the support he and his team-mates have received from their opponents this term.

He continued: “At the start it wasn’t really good because the other teams were annihilating us. We were new to it but we’ve put it up to the good teams since then and we were there and we competed.

“We’re building, but hopefully next year we’ll put it up to some of the teams who have been going a long time and at the start they had to go to England to play which is what got them to where they are now.

“There’s teams there a long time and they are still building but they help you. When you’re on the court, they tell you ‘shoot there’, ‘stay there’, ‘don’t go there’, ‘do this’, ‘do that’, they are a good help.

“And the last three league games, we could see we have improved. We’re doing something right.”

The BC Werewolves hosted the final round of league fixtures on Saturday last in Cookstown Leisure Centre where they lost 27-45 to Marty’s former club, Craigavon Lakers and Bangor Bulls 20-44, while the Knights won 34-10 against South West Storm, Craigavon defeated North West Wolves 24-18, the Knights overcame Causeway Giants 35-28 and the Giants beat the NW Wolves 36-23 during a day of exciting on-court action.

And while a little disappointed not to have picked up their first win of the season Dungannon man Lavery and his team-mates are even more determined to achieve that aim next year after a spring and summer of hard work in training.

“We didn’t strike gold [in the final round of fixtures] but the goal next year is to get more than a couple of games, which is why we’re training all the way through to when the teams play each other again,” he added.

“We’re going to train all the way through [to next season] because we’ve been gradually improving all season and as the days and weeks go on we’ve been getting better, which is something we want to continue.

“Hopefully by then we’ll be a lot quicker, a lot better at the shooting and the baskets.”

Marty started his wheelchair basketball career with Craigavon Lakers before moving to Cookstown. He also plays Wheelchair Rugby, also known as ‘Murderball’ due to its physicality, and Wheelchair Hurling, representing Ulster who won the National League last year before falling to defeat in the All-Ireland Championship final for a second year in a row. And he’s hoping basketball can develop at the same rate as his other two sporting loves.

“The wheelchair rugby is worse than bumping cars!,” he explained with a laugh. “The training side of it is real physical, it’s real tense, you feel good after you finish.

“Now, you fall out of the chair, you do fall out because when you collide in the rugby it’s like a car crash but the more you fall out of the chair, the more you get used to it. The fear isn’t there as much. There’s no mercy! But I like it, it keeps me fit.

“And the hurling, we were very unlucky in the [All-Ireland Championship] final not to win it [against Munster] but we have a good set-up and it’s building and building all the time. The same of the basketball, hopefully it will grow as well.”

Training for BC Werewolves wheelchair basketball team is at Cookstown Leisure Centre on a Tuesday from 5.45pm to 6.45pm and it’s open to anyone.

“It’s open to anyone. We have a couple of able players who play on the team – they can play for so long, then they have to go off, but they can come back on again,” Marty explained.

“It’s not just all people who are in a wheelchair all the time, anyone can join in which is good because it gives everybody a go.”