Queen’s Sport recently welcomed two Cleveland based students to the University. Ryan Berger and Danny Lavelle will be undertaking a Masters and Undergraduate course, respectively, and will be helping with the development of basketball at Queen’s. The talented duo has been supported by the Cleveland Project which supports the development of grass roots basketball in a number of locations across Northern Ireland.

Kevin Murray, Participation Sport Manager at Queen’s Sport said:

“We are delighted that Danny and Ryan have come to study at Queen’s and to help with the development of basketball in the University. There is huge interest in the sport here and the involvement of these exceptional student athletes will be a major boost for the club. We hope to build a strong and competitive intervarsity team in the coming year and to provide more opportunities to play basketball for students of all ability levels.”

The Cleveland Project will develop a long-term relationship with Queen’s, and it is expected that Ryan and Danny will be the first of a larger cohort of US based students that will come here to study and play.  It is hoped that the Basketball Club will grow and flourish in the coming years with support from both Queen’s Sport and the Cleveland project.

One of the first outings that the players got was as part of a training session organised in conjunction with NBA Basketball legend Eanas Kanto Freedom, who visited Belfast last week as part of the One Young World Conference.  The former New York Knicks and Boston Celtics centre set up a series of training drills and shared some of the highlights of his professional basketball career with the Queen’s students. Locally based Cleveland Project staff and players also attended the session and took the opportunity to extend a welcome to Ryan and Danny.