This current school year has been very eventful for the sports department in Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh. The hard work of our Active Committee, coaches and of course the commitment of the children to training and staying active has resulted in a wonderful sporting year. The aim of our sports department is not only to allow those who play sport with local clubs showcase their skills but also to facilitate those who may not be members of clubs outside school to access a wide variety of sports to both enjoy and develop their own skills. Not only has this been a very enjoyable and successful year for our sporting department but it has also been a historic one, as, for the first time in our school’s history, we fielded a girls Gaelic Football and Soccer team.
Spikeball, a variation of volleyball, was first on our sporting calendar with competitions starting in February. Under the guidance of Mrs. Garry and Mr. Morrison the team were very well prepared and trained hard in the weeks prior to the competition. Our team was comprised of a total of 16 children, boys and girls. On the preliminary rounds the team stormed to victory and had to return for the next round the following week. The team narrowly missed out in the final, losing in extra time.
Gaelic Football training began in September on the racecourse. To our delight we saw massive turnouts of boys and girls attending, on some days we had as many as 100 children attending. Due to the large turnouts we felt it would be suitable to enter a boys and a girls’ team into competition this year. Both teams consisted mainly of children who had no previous experience of playing Gaelic Football and therefore we trained twice a week with the help of Mrs Garry, Mr Morrison, Ms Kearney and Mr. Corcoran. Both teams showed incredible commitment throughout and always played with great spirit and determination. The girl’s team had an impressive campaign for their first year in competition, they were beaten by a very strong and experienced Dunboyne side but had a super performance in their next game versus Julianstown which ended in a draw. The boys reached the Corn Cois Farraige final after beating Donore in a thrilling semi-final. It was a great campaign for the boys who beat Le Chéile, Donore, Ardcath and Stamullen along the way. In the final we came up against Stamullen who we had previously beaten in the group stages. Unfortunately it was Stamullen who came out on top this time winning on a score line of 16 points to 9. The support we received on the day from the school community and also parents was outstanding and the players were very appreciative of this.
Our school soccer teams also had great success this year in the SPAR FAI Primary School 5s. Unfortunately this competitions only allows a team of eight and therefore having entered two teams in both the boys and girls section we still had to hold trials in order to pick our final squads. Again we had huge numbers wishing to try out for the teams but having narrowed down our numbers to the required amount we had four very strong teams ready for the preliminary round of the competition for large schools in the MDL grounds in Navan. After a tough day of five high intensity matches each, one of our boy’s teams and one of girl’s teams won all their games and made it through to the Meath Finals also to be held in the MDL grounds in Navan. Both teams performed extremely well at these finals and were unlucky not to make it through to the North Leinster round of the competition with our boys’ team finishing up in third place and our girls’ team finishing in fourth place.
Ms McAleer’s 5th class were lucky enough to partake in the Sport Against Racism Ireland Football3 tournament. This is a very unique tournament as each team consists of ten players both boys and girls. Points are awarded to teams for playing fairly and also scoring goals. Before each game the children are allowed to make up 3 additional rules to be followed. Ms McAleer’s class was split into three different teams, one of which made it all the way to the final. They drew the match 1-1 but won on penalties. They brought the cup back to the school and were very proud of their achievements.
Our school Athletics team recently competed in Navan. They had a wonderful day where boys and girls from 3rd class to 6th class competed in sprints, long distance running, relays, long jumping and ball throwing. The team were very successful and returned to school with plenty of medals.