When Ireland's U16s take the floor in Skopje tomorrow, a Limerick Lion will be among them.
The travel is done and the squad is settled. Tomorrow the FIBA U16 EuroBasket tips off in Skopje, North Macedonia, and Fred Klimas is in the Ireland panel. That lands differently when it is a player you have watched grow up at the club.
Skopje is a long way from a Limerick gym on a wet weeknight. The road between the two runs through years of training, and Fred has put in every hour of it to get here.
This is the week a club takes a quiet pride in. From the youngest mini-ball group to the senior coaches, the message out of the Lions is the same: get behind Fred, because he has earned this.
The younger players have a name to follow now. They can see where the hours take you, and they can see it is done from here, from this club, in this city.
Everyone at the Lions is right behind him as the tournament starts. We will be watching.
He gives the younger ones something real to aim at.
Limerick Lions