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Primary Report AGM 2006 |
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Annual Report 2006. Primary School (Saturday morning) coaching Almost 400 boys aged between 5 and 11 registered as Rockies during the year 2006. Each age group is now provided for and over 30 coaches give a year round commitment to the club in order to coach these children in the skills of hurling. About 200 attend the Saturday indoor hurling programmes at St Anthony’s School Hall in Ballinlough and at the new Blackrock Hurling Hall. The Blackrock Super leagues The Rocky Super league competitions were again the main feature of our Saturday mornings. These resulted in 32 games being played, with the Cup Finals providing great excitement. Huge crowds turned up for many of the games. Almost 300 boys enjoyed the regular matches with each child having the opportunity to play in four games. The leagues have really become the highlights of the season and they are always played in a great spirit of passion and commitment by the children encouraged by the Blackrock coaches. These super leagues are sponsored by Carey Tool Hire and we were particularly happy that the Carey family have again announced the continuation of their sponsorship into 2007, thus extending the long tradition of practical support from what is our longest established sponsor which was begun by the late Joe Carey. A new feature in 2006 was the commencement of the Mycro Sports Indoor Leagues at St.Anthony’s School where a massive 63 games of indoor hurling were played in the competition. Our thanks to Victor Morgan of Mycro Sports for his support. We were also delighted to extend a warm welcome in December to former Lord Mayor Cllr. Deirdre Clune who presented a cheque on behalf of her father to support the huge effort being put in to develop and spread hurling in the catchment area. Teams’ progress All the teams performed very well in their various competitions and in their matches. The Under 11s reached the under 12B league final which was a fantastic achievement. While they had to give way to a good St. Vincent’s team, they fought right to the end. Nicholas Bond, Donnachadh Flynn, Paul Prendergast, Killian Hurley and Derek Crowe looked after these Rockies throughout the year. The under 10s reached the finals of the Mick Cashman Cup, which was excellently organised city wide as a league by Tom Daly, Sean Logue, James Tyner and Paul Reidy and produced some very good quality hurling games. The climax of this competition took place on a wonderful sunny Sunday in September when the finals were played in the presence of the Cashman family. The under 10s also performed very well in various challenge matches during the year. The Under 9s and 8s also gave a good account of themselves in their various challenge games. There are excellently organised groups at under 6 and under 7 and their coaches report great progress. The very small boys and girls have had a great time with Joe, Michael and Paul and Oisin all year. Sport is fun! We should continue to organise regular friendly games for all our teams in the Primary Section, where the entire emphasis of the coaches and parents should be on every player receiving an opportunity to play the game and to enjoy the sport in a positive supportive and appreciative environment. A “win at all costs mentality” at these very young age groups is wrong and we should not get involved with any club or team in which this approach remains the ethos. We are somewhat concerned that far far too much emphasis is being placed on winning and introducing competitiveness for children at very young ages. We believe this may contribute to the big fall off of children from sport later. In 2005 the Primary Section introduced a Code of Conduct for all parents and supporters which was very well received. Several clubs have asked to reproduce it. Coaching. The club is very fortunate to have the services of a group of very dedicated and committed group of coaches who turn out all through the year to coach the youngsters. “Thanks” appears a very inadequate word for all the work they do but we would like to put our appreciation on public record. A total of 12 members acquired the G.A.A. Foundation Certificates following an in-house coaching course in April. James Tyner completed the G.A.A. Level 1 Course. Further courses are available early in 2006 and we urge all coaches to avail of these if possible. A special coaches seminar was organised for 30th March at Church Road, and included talks on first aid, child protection and other relevant issues for coaches. We are delighted to announce that John Kennedy will take over in 2007 as child welfare officer for the underage sections. We hope to have a further coaches meeting in 2007. A pleasing feature of 2006 has been the number of young people who continue to help with all aspects of Saturday mornings, in particular Christy Bonus, Ciaran Tobin, Rory Wedel, Colm Daly, Donal Murray and Oisin O’Mahony and Ailbhe Crowley who have assisted with the coaching. A number of other young people help out in the pavilion and we would hope to see many more in 2007. Remember there is a role for everyone in the club, so if anyone has a few hours on a Saturday morning to spare, just let us know! Developments during 2006 A lovely Blackrock club brochure was designed and published in 2006 and has been issued to all the young members. A poster was also printed and is rapidly becoming a collector’s item. Copies are available to anyone requiring same.Car stickers have been reprinted, so just ask if you require one. The Blackrock Coaches Manual was again updated and issued to all underage coaches. www.blackrockhurling.org The ongoing maintenance of the Rocky website was undertaken by John Green and is proving to be of immense benefit to the young Rockies. It is vital that all sections would submit material, fixtures, results, plans or reports of matches. It is up to each section to submit their details to the site so how about it in 2007! We would like to thank St Michae’ls Credit Union, which provided some financial sponsorship for the site in 2006. Many people especially supporters of the club living abroad are now visiting the site as a source of up to date information about the club and it is therefore important that it is kept up to date at all times. Our thanks to John Green for his efforts, the site can be viewed at www.blackrockhurling.org and John can be contacted at johngreen@eircom.net . The site has now has had almost 35000 hits. Media. We would like to thank the Evening Echo newspaper especially James O’Sullivan for allowing us to avail of a weekly column to publicise our activities, forty five columns of notes were supplied during the period. Likewise, Douglas Weekly allows us to make regular reports and have given the club great coverage. Radio 96FM also assist. Corporate Night. A very special thanks to the Blackrock Corporate Night underage fundraising committee who made a major success of the 2006 event. It was the outstanding social event of the year. Well done to Brendan Cunningham, Brian Tobin, John Cormack, Harry Canning, Wayne Sherlock, Eamonn O’Donoghue and Tom Riordan! It just shows the level of support in the wider community for the club which should be encouraged. Saturday morning at the Pavilion The most satisfying part of the week is to ramble into the pavilion on a Saturday morning once the hurling is over, have a cup of coffee and a delightful homemade cake and relax and listen to the coach’s parents and children talk about the morning’s events. Lilian Daly, Kathleen Laide, Eithne O’Mahony, Mary Murphy and Diane O’Sullivan run this very professional operation. The store manager Terry Hassett did a great job while Sonny O’Driscoll provides the amplification. Myles Balfe and his staff have cooperated totally with our efforts on Saturday mornings. May, Marie and Jim O’Brien now look after the Blackrock gear shops which enable parents to purchase Rocky jerseys and club gear. Blanche Mulconry takes care of registrations, while Pat Roche and his young hurley salesmen supply the hurleys and helmets. It is a very busy place indeed on Saturdays. We are appreciative also of the work of Aidan Long and David Barry. Many members of the senior team came in regularly on Saturday mornings for various presentations. Thanks to Wayne, John, Alan, Fergal, Paul, Barry and David and the other players on the senior team for being available! The Primary coaches who made it all possible. Joe Phibbs Paul O’Callaghan Tom Daly James Tyner Peter Fitzgerald Gerard Crowley John Kennedy Jim Brohan Brendan Cunningham Sean Logue Killian Hurley Michael Dunphy Nicholas Bond Donal Murray John O’Brien Tim Mullane Donal O’Leary Rory Wedel Colm Daly John Cormack Allan Russell Martin O’Farrell Harry Canning Brother Patrick Fitzgibbon Paul Reidy Paul O’Sullivan John Vaughan Donnachadh Flynn Aidan Lougheed Brian Roche Derek Crowe John O’Brien Tom Kilcummins Tom Cashman Tom Riordan Oisin O’Mahony Don O’Callaghan Mark Dalton Christy Bonus Donal Coughlan The officers of the Juvenile sections, Eamon O Donoghue, John O’Halloran and and Brother Patrick Fitzgibbon and Martin O’Farrell provided huge practical assistance and support during the year. Also we are grateful to all the officers of the Senior Hurling Committee for their assistance and encouragement during the year and we send our best wishes to Dave Cummins and Andy Hayes and hope they made speedy recoveries. Eamonn Kiely of St. Michael’s under-age section was very cooperative especially in relation to the running off of the Super Leagues. The Blackrock Camogie Club also willingly cooperated. Wish List for 2007! Hurling Alley. We must also look seriously at the position of developing a series of hurling alleys or walls in Church Road where youngsters can practice their hurling skills. The feasibility of an all-weather pitch should also be looked at. There is a growing sense that the under-age clubs with ready access to these facilities are beginning to open up an increasing gap in the hurling skills area, which our passion and commitment alone will not close! We have the necessary skills within the club to design such a facility and we have no doubt that we can finance its construction out of our resources, so can we make some progress in this area during 2006! Seamus Hartnett. Chairperson. Gerard O’Mahony. Hon Sec. Primary Section. Nov.2005.
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