Lisburn Basketball Club

Club History

Basketball has been played in Lisburn since the late 1960’s, in 1995 the Lisburn Scorpions were created from the remnants from an old team known as the Falcons who had been in existence for over 17 years. The club was co-founded by Joel Douglas, Brendan Mason and Ed Edmondson.

The Scorpions entered into the Ulster Basketball Association’s (now known as Basketball Northern Ireland) Men’s Division 2.

After two seasons in Division 2 under the helm of dual head coaches Adrian Cullen and Brendan Mason the Scorpions finished joint top of the league table and in 1997 were promoted to the UBA Men’s Division 1.

The team made a solid impression in their first season finishing in 5th place. However, in their second and third seasons in Division 1 the team was impacted by the loss of 3 of its main players to other clubs, so much so that the team finished in bottom place in each of the two seasons.

In 1999 the club was awarded a grant from the Lisburn City Council for close to £3,000 to develop a junior wing to the club and allow it to expand.

In 2000 the senior men’s team had its first winning season in Division 1. Meanwhile the development of the junior club was progressing at a significant pace.

In 2001 the Scorpions launched their second senior men’s team, using the older players from the junior section, which became known as the Sting into Division 2. The team was designed not to win games but to develop the young players rapidly and allow them to be integrated into the Scorpions first team to replace lost players.

In 2002 the YMCA women's team who had played previously in the Belfast's YMCA were left without a court due to the sale of the YMCA building. Facing the very real possibility of the team being discontinued the Lisburn Scorpions stepped in and offered the women's team the use of the Scorpions training facilities and their hosting venue. After a successful year with playing out of Lisburn the YMCA women's team where invited to become part of the Scorpions club.

In the 2004 AGM the club voted to rename itself as the Lisburn City Basketball Club to reflect the fact that the club was comprised of more than just 1 team and to tie itself more closely to the city it represented. The women's team also had a highlight season this year winning the Women's Premier Division.