Abigail enjoys a wonderful season with the ‘Wolves’

ABIGAIL Rafferty’s first season as a professional basketball player in the British Women’s Superleague could hardly have gone any better.

The Dungannon woman joined an ambitious Oakland Wolves team which had never really set the world alight.

They were regularly competing for a place in the top six play-offs but had never actually achieved that aim.

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But this season with Rafferty and a host of new players in their ranks, they did. Not only that, but they won the SLBW League title and reached all three finals during a campaign none of those involved in will ever forget.

Alongside the League trophy, Abigail and her colleagues also lifted the SLBW Cup and narrowly lost out in the Play-off final and the SLBW Trophy decider and as stunned as she is delighted by that success, the 23-year-old Ireland international believes that’s down to the ‘time and effort’ put in by head coach, Lee Ryan.

“Honestly, if you’d have told me before I moved over to England in September that we were going to do so well, I wouldn’t have believed you!,” she beamed. “It’s insane what we accomplished as a team, especially Oakland, who came from not even qualifying for top six to making every final and winning the league is insane!

“They were always fighting for that top six position for play-offs but they never made it. But this year it’s obvious that coach Lee put a lot of time and effort into the players he recruited, we had players from New Zealand, Brazil, Portugal, Americans and some British as well.”

While recruiting a lot of top players doesn’t always guarantee success, the speed in which the new Oakland Wolves squad gelled meant that was a likely outcome in the 2024-25 season and Rafferty feels the fact the she and her team-mates all bought into a pre-season ‘goal’ made the difference.

“He had some elite players in that team and we all gelled really well. I don’t think he [Coach Lee Ryan] realised how well it was going to work, but it worked really well,” she added.

“Usually there are some disagreements in teams, especially amongst players and it can be hard for a coach to follow the same goal but he gave us a goal at the very start and I think we all bought in and that was the main difference I think.”

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Having played in America for DeSales University in Pennsylvania, where she averaged 10.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists for a year during her university studies, means Abigail is no stranger to living and competing away from home, but she admits life as a full-time professional did take some time getting used to, especially the time outside training and games.

“I think, at the start I struggled a lot, especially with coming from graduating university because I’d always had university work to do on the side – basketball was never the priority in my life,” she explained.

“But having all that free time to put into yourself was amazing, but also challenging because motivation to do that had to be high constantly. We all have days when we don’t particularly want to do things and I did get those days, believe me!

“But I always had the mornings free, so I tried to find other things, other hobbies outside basketball before training which would start around midday and into the evening.”

Having adapted to a new way of life quickly, Abigail made the most of her opportunity as a full-time professional and she feels the work out in has most definitely paid off.

“Even my family have said that physically I’ve gotten better, having been in the gym three or four times a week, and my confidence, how I speak about myself and what I can achieve has changed,” she added.

“It was probably the best decision I ever made!”

While the decision to move to Oakland Wolves most definitely paid off, Abigail now faces another choice. She has offers to play in Spain and Portugal as well as the door for a return to England being open, but in the meantime, despite having finished a season which ran from October until the end of May, she will spend the summer playing 3X3 for Ireland.

“It was the longest season I’ve ever played!,” she exclaimed. “At the minute I’m contracted with the national 3X3 team right now, so I’m playing over the summer and I have the under-23 3X3 Nation’s League this summer in Latvia.

“And I need to make a decision about what I want to do next season. I have just signed with an agent and there are some people from Spain and Portugal [have shown an interest] and back home in Ireland and obviously going back to Oakland could be an option.

“I think [coach Lee Ryan] has a good few players coming back but it’s lovely to have options but it’s really difficult because obviously I want to travel and see Europe. I know Oakland is a great programme, it will help me develop more, they speak English and it’s close to home, but I’ve promised myself I won’t leave my decision as late as I did last year even though it paid off!”

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