Opportunity knocks for Castlebar’s Irish international Victor
He may have been a latecomer to basketball at the age of 14 but Castlebar man Victor Okojie has more than made up for lost time, writes John Melvin.
A call-up to the Irish senior men’s basketball team is a reflection on, and indeed recognition of, just how quickly the former St. Gerald’s College student has made up for lost time.
At just 19 years old, it was no surprise that Victor stood out amongst the St. Gerald’s team at Under 14 and Under 16 level.
He was only beginning to grow, in every sense of the word, but is now standing at a towering 6’ 8’’ – and it didn’t take him long to discover that basketball was to provide gateway to a career as well as an education as he joined the Riverhawk team at University of Massachusetts, where he continues to play Division 1 college basketball.
Victor is making steady progress in the US, taking the Rookie of the Week award last February, a month in which he turned in massive back-to-back performances that resulted in the following citation on the college’s website: “UMass Lowell men's basketball freshman Victor Okojie (Castlebar, Ireland) earned his first America East Rookie of the Week nod following his performance in a pair of outings. Okojie averaged 11.5 points and 11.0 rebounds in a 1-1 week on the road for the River.”
Victor’s decision to leave Castlebar and join an academy in Dublin to improve his basketball skills was the platform which resulted in him heading to college in the US, where he has impressed the coaches with his handwork and dedication.
He was soon to come to the attention of the Irish coaches as he was called into the Under 20 team and just recently was called up to the senior team along with five other uncapped players as Irish senior basketball coach Michael Bree tries to assemble an Irish team that can advance in FIBA EuroBasket 2029 pre-qualifiers.
There are very high hopes that Victor has the drive and determination to make an impact at senior level for Ireland, and this week he will be given the opportunity to impress on his senior debut when Ireland play Armenia in a friendly in America while. Later this week Ireland will be competing in the EuroBasket 2029 pre-qualifiers, taking on North Macedonia in Skopje on Thursday (July 2), a game that will be shown live at 7 o’clock on TG4 Player, while on Sunday, July 5, Ireland head to Baku where they take on Azerbaijan for a 2 o’clock game, which will also be shown live on TG4 Player.
Said Bree: “The game against Armenia is a great opportunity for a new-look group to gel against a tough opponent and put their hand up for the games against North Macedonia and Azerbaijan.”
He added: “It’s a very new group we are working on but there is no doubt there’s plenty of exciting talent in the squad, so I’m looking forward to getting to work with them and seeing how quickly we can put things together for the challenges ahead of the European pre-qualifiers.
"Our first training session went really, really well. I'm quite optimistic about who they are and what they can do as a team. There is so much potential and the opportunity is there for us as a group. The one thing they're all lacking is a little bit of experience. They're all really talented individuals. They're all coming from different backgrounds or in different situations, whether it's college or professionally."
Ireland team captain Sean Flood is also excited and optimistic about the future of Irish men’s basketball at senior level.
“There's a lot of new faces in the squad but it just shows the depth that we are building and it's always exciting as a player to see these guys who have been performing at Under 18 and Under 20 level come into the squad,” he said ahead of some big challenges ahead at European level.
The squad will arrive in Los Angeles today (Thursday) before travelling to Skopje for their first pre-qualifier against North Macedonia and then on to Baku to face Azerbaijan in the second game of the series.