The Mortgage Shop NI - STAR SHOOTING FOR SUCCESS WITH MORTGAGE SHOP SPONSORSHIP

18 January 2008

Super League basketball team Belfast Star has received a welcome boost for the 2007/2008 season, having secured a significant financial sponsorship package from The Mortgage Shop, it was announced today.

Team sponsor Siobhan McAleer, Managing Director of the Mortgage Shop said: “The Mortgage Shop is proud to sponsor Belfast Star this season. We are delighted to be able to help them this season and play a part in developing young local sports talent. As we now have Mortgage Shop branches throughout Ireland, we will call upon our customers from Belfast to Dublin to get behind the team.”

Founded in 1964, Star is the oldest basketball club in Ulster participating competitively in Irish basketball. Since joining the Irish Super League over fifteen years ago, Star has been at the cutting edge of Irish basketball with achievements including two All Ireland Super League titles and three National Championships.

Much of Star’s local talent, including Chris Smye, Ciaran McVeigh, Robert McMurrin, Niall Mullan, have risen through the ranks of the Belfast Star Junior U13 and U17 teams to now compete in the Superleague.

Adding an international dimension to the team, Belfast Star welcomed three new faces to the line up this season. Twenty-five year old pro player Nick Michael comes from Chicago team the Elgin Racers and twenty-three year old Bobby Kelly has taken swapped college basketball, playing for the Northeastern University Huskies in Boston to take up guard for Star. Star also boasts the first Eastern European player to represent Northern Ireland in the Superleague, with Rimas Kidykas joining the team this season from Lithuania.

Belfast Star Head Coach, Darren O’Neill said: “We are thrilled to have received this generous sponsorship from The Mortgage Shop. Playing in the Superleague is highly competitive and demanding in terms of physical fitness and time commitment. Whilst we receive a tremendous amount of goodwill from our many supporters, The Mortgage Shop sponsorship support will go a long way in covering important aspects of our work including the team’s kit and transport costs.”

Having slammed dunked a sponsorship partnership with The Mortgage Shop, Star are in good shape for their next game against last season’s champions, the Dublin team Killester on 15^th December, who they have already secured a win against at the beginning of the season.