The SETU Waterford Wildcats are celebrating becoming regular league champions for the first time in 24 years.
The Wildcats are league champions with two games to go, having defeated Brunell 79-73 on Sunday.
Their attentions will soon turn to the championship playoffs as they look to secure the double for the first time since 1999.
Coach Jillian Hayes says she’s incredibly proud of the whole squad.
“Absolutely thrilled. Walking on moon all day today. So happy for all the girls. We’ve been knocking on the door for absolute years now – kind of making the top four and knocking on the door. There’s a couple of senior players there, Helena and Sinead, in all their years of playing, never won anything. It was so sweet to confirm regular season winners and two games in hand. We still have two games to finish the league off, but we cannot be caught at this stage.”
Hayes says she’s proud of all players, particularly her daughters Kate and Sarah Hickey.
“I kind of adopt all them girls as my children half the time. Just super proud of all of them. We had to dig really, really hard. It’s very hard to play away from home. We had a big stake on that game. So did they. You know, they’re still trying to get the highest position in the league they can get. They were all out for the win on Sunday too. It wasn’t easy, but we really stuck it out and grind to the end to get the win.”
Cup wins are always welcome, but there’s nothing as sweet as a league title.
“The league champions obviously are the most consistent team over the course of the whole season, whereas with the cup, you can just have two good games or three good games and you could end up winning a cup, or we could end up winning playoff championships, which is still there for us to win now in a couple of weeks as well. The consistency of the team week in, week out, grinding those two and three point wins sometimes – we weren’t winning by loads all the time. That definitely has come from past experience.”
