Belfast Star - History
The late Dr. Liam Conlon founded Star of the Sea Youth Club in 1964. Primarily a football club, Liam wanted to encourage participation in other sports and Bill McCotter was at the forefront of basketball development in the club right from it’s inception in the same year. The club played its first competitive games in youth club blitzes for the first couple of years before entering the Northern Ireland Boys Clubs league. In this league they competed against such clubs as St.Gall’s, Ballymena All Saints and Ballycastle. Bill McCotter, Rupert Rogan, Niall Grant, Danny Bowen, Sean Broderick and Michael Sands were some of the players on the roster. Bill, by this stage a schoolboy international, managed to recruit players such as Frankie Magee and Jim McDonald (brother of Allan the former Northern Ireland football international and Roy the former Crusaders goalkeeper) from Hopefield. Shortly afterwards Derek and Norman Armstrong from the Boys Model joined and Star entered the Ulster League Division 3. Frankie McDonald from Belfast Celtics became the first coach and soon after Gerry Arkins (the current chairman) and the 6’6 centre Tom Bosket from Shore Crescent and Mountcollyer joined the ranks. Star, as a Division 2 team, reached their first Ulster Cup final in 1972 playing Collegians and the famous Irish international George Clarke in Sans Soucci. Basketball Ireland Hall of fame inductee George Glasgow was Chairman of Ulster Basketball at a dominant time for Ulster Basketball. Star is the oldest basketball club in Ulster still participating competitively.
MORE RECENTLY
Star has been at the cutting edge of Irish basketball over the past fifteen years. The clubs’ list of achievements include 3 National Championships and 2 All Ireland Super League titles as well as a host of Ulster senior and underage titles.