Edel Thornton and Vinnie O’Keefe, of Trinity Meteors, have won player and coach of the season respectively in Division 1 of the Irish Basketball League.
Thornton won the Player of the Year award in the Women’s Division 1, while Meteors head coach Vinnie O’Keefe was named Coach of the Year in the same category.
Thornton, a key performer on the court for Meteors this season, also picked up a separate college-level award, after being named NBCC College Division 1 Player of the Year for her displays in the intervarsity competition.
Thornton won a number of Player of the Month accolades over the course of this season. O’Keefe was also recognised on several occasions at the monthly awards.
Edel Thornton joined Trinity Meteors this season as a sports scholar. She had previously spent four years playing Division 1 college basketball for Quinnipiac University in the US. In 2017, she became the first Irish basketball player to reach the Sweet 16 round of the Division 1 NCAA tournament.
In an interview with The University Times last October, Thornton discussed her ambitions for the year. “I come from a winning background” she said, “and I don’t plan on changing that while I’m here”.
Thornton earns the award after finishing the season averaging 15.7 points per-game, along with six assists, six rebounds and 5.3 steals – the highest average in the league in this category.
This was O’Keefe’s second season with Trinity Meteors. He first took the job after the merger between Trinity basketball and Meteors last year, when Seamus Donnelly, a professor of medicine in Trinity, approached him.
The awards round off a hugely successful season for Meteors, who secured promotion to the Super League – the top tier of Irish club basketball – after defeating Team Tom McCarthy St Mary’s 80-65 in the Division 1 final last month.
Thornton and O’Keefe are due to receive their awards at a ceremony scheduled for next month in Croke Park. The event is subject to change, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
