Basketball Ireland to welcome NCAA's Florida Tech head coach for coaching clinics

Basketball Ireland is delighted to welcome head coach of the NCAA’s Florida Tech Panthers to Ireland for a series of coaching clinics and events over the next two weeks. As well as hosting three coaching clinics coach Mims will be working with the Irish u15 and u17 academies and working with the players at the Basketball Ireland 3x3 Camp in Limerick.

Billy Mims is the all-time winningest coach in Florida Tech's 60+ year history, with almost 700 career wins, and has acknowledged his deep connections to Irish Basketball. 

“I have been over to Ireland many times in the past to speak at both youth camps and coaching clinics. Many years ago, I even won the famous ‘Dirty T-Shirt’ award at the Dungarvan National Camp presented to me by legendary Irish coaches Danny Fulton and Enda Byrt! I spent 1 season coaching in the Irish Premier League in Cork, my first as a head coach, way back in 1986-87 leading Burgerland Neptune to both the Irish National League Championship and their first ever Top Four Championship way up in Sligo as well. Even still today, I have an Irish International player on my NCAA team, Darragh O’Sullivan from Cork. I have the distinct pleasure of having coached both father and son, Tom O’Sullivan (Sully) when I coached Neptune and now Darragh here at Florida Tech. I loved my time coaching and living in Ireland and still have so many fond memories of my time there and I’m very excited to make the trip across the pond to try and help grow the game on the Emerald Isle.”

In May 2018, coach Mims was inducted into the Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame. Mims guided the Panthers to a SSC Championship (the first outright conference title in program history), a 23-7 overall record (second most wins ever in a single season), and the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament (only the 2nd time in school history). 

Coach Mims also has a successful history coaching in Ireland and the UK. He coached three different clubs and led them all to National Championship success.  In his one season in Ireland, he led Neptune Basketball Club Cork to both the National League and National Top 4 Championships. In England, he was named the British Basketball League “Coach of the Year” twice and National “Coach of the Month” five times. Mims was twice chosen to coach in the prestigious BBL All-Star game and served as an advance scout for the England National team. As a Head Coach in the USA and Europe, Mims has seen his teams win over 650 games and collect seven National Championships. He has served as a regular commentator for the NBA on the BBC, Sky Sports, and Channel 5 in England, and hosted his own weekly radio talk show in Florida on ESPN Radio and Space Coast Daily TV, "The Billy Mims Show." A very active coach worldwide in youth development for the game of basketball, Mims has run clinics and summer camps for boys and girls in the USA, South America, England, Ireland, Italy, Greece, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands. In 2010, Mims was invited to speak at an international coaching clinic held in conjunction with the FIBA Senior Men’s World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. He was invited in 2019 to Greece to speak during the U19 World Championships in Heraklion, Crete, and again in 2021 to speak during the FIBA U20 European Championships also held in Crete.

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Coaching Clinic Details

Tickets for all courses must be purchased through Helpside in the “Coach CPD” section or through this direct link. https://helpside.ireland.basketball/course/view.php?id=66

Thursday 22^nd June, University of Ulster Jordanstown, 8-9.30pm

Friday 23^rd June, Oatlands College Dublin, 7.30 – 9.30pm

Monday 26th June, University of Limerick, 8pm – 9.30pm