Moycullen Basketball have a received a major boost on the eve of their third season in the Nivea for Men’s Superleague with the signing of NAIA All-American, Luke Enos.
Enos (24 ) will spearhead a young Moycullen side whose 2010/2011 campaign begins with a trip to Cork where they face UCC Demons on Sunday.
Standing at six foot seven feet inches, Enos was a stand-out player at Black Hills State University in his native South Dakota where he started for all four of his college years and earned multiple individual awards.
Enos was twice named an NAIA All-American, an incredible honour which ranked him as one of the 10 best players in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in the United States. In his final season, he was also named as the Player of the Year in his league, the Dakota Athletic Conference.
Speaking after he signed, Enos said: “I’m excited to get to Ireland and play with my team – I’m very blessed to receive this opportunity.”
Supporters in Galway will have to wait until October 15 to see Enos in action as Moycullen start their season with back-to-back away games. This weekend they go up against perennial powerhouses UCC Demons in Cork while the following Sunday they play in Dublin against DCU Saints.
The first Galway fixture will then be a repeat meeting of Saints and Moycullen when they take to the court in NUI Galway’s Kingfisher for a 4pm tip-off on Saturday, October 15.
Moycullen will be eager to make amends for last year’s difficult campaign. Despite considerable pre-season optimism, Moycullen’s season was derailed by injuries to their two top-scoring Irish players, Cian Nihill and Garnett Griffin.
Despite disappointment with their win-loss record, the season did see the continued emergence of young talent in the form of Stephen Tummon, James Loughnane and Dylan Cunningham. Meanwhile, Michael Dowd was named the team’s player of the year by the club after a fantastic season and his leadership will be crucial if Moycullen are to make the breakthrough and become serious playoff contenders.
The increased depth of strength in the panel was evident during a recent pre-season tournament in Limerick when Paul O’Brien was the team’s top scorer and Eoghan Maxwell regained an integral spot in the rotation.
All of the squad’s increasing maturity will be needed this Sunday as they take on Blue Demons, whose home fans always create an exciting atmosphere that can often work in favour of a team looking to cause an upset. If Moycullen can play an aggressive, free flowing game and get into a good shooting rhythm, then they have every chance of turning over a Blue Demons team which Moycullen came within one basket of beating in their final home game of last year.
