“The blessing was that there was no one in the hall”
The home of Garvey’s Tralee Warriors basketball club has been ruined after the roof caved in under heavy snow on Monday morning.
Tralee – who have former Kerry footballer Kieran Donaghy on the roster – are currently third in the Super League.
The Regional Sports and Leisure Complex is also home to the club’s Under 20s, ladies, and development teams.
Chairperson Terry O’Brien told RTÉ Sport:
“It’s awful. Our whole venue has gone, disappeared because the roof just fell in from the weight of the snow.
“The complex is in a terrible way. The roof of the facility itself caved inwards, so whatever was there for a basketball facility no longer exists.
“It was a horrible call we got first thing this morning, telling us that the roof had fallen in and that was the finish of our Super League season, home games, training our under 20s and other development team and our ladies team.
“The blessing was that there was no one in the hall, that it fell early in the morning. Because we were playing there two nights ago.
“There was a massive amount of snow fell in Tralee and in Kerry. So it was obviously sitting there for a while and decided to come down when it did.
The club are now trying to find alternative venues for their remaining three Super League home games, while O’Brien is wary that they may have find an alternative for next season as well.
He added: “There is a very good basketball fraternity here in Kerry.
“We’ve had offers from Killarney, our friends in Castleisland. They would have fairly good home venues.
“The only saving grace is we have a few weeks before our next home game. So we would hope to have something established within the next maybe week or so. But it’s a huge knock back for us altogether.
“This is definitely the season finished and I’d say we’re looking at even next season.
“We know how things work. They don’t move that fast when it comes to insurance and assessors and what’s got to be done and what’s got to be changed.
“I would imagine looking at it, this has got to be a totally new hall built from scratch.
“So it’s definitely a long-term project for both Tralee Sports Centre and for us as Garvey’s Warriors Basketball Club.”
