Player Profile Championship 2011
As part of championship 2011, a camogie player will be featured each week. To kick off this year’s action, we start with Wexford’s Captain and All Star full forward Ursula Jacob to get her thoughts on all things camogie and some other stuff too!
Name: Ursula Jacob
Club: Oulart- The Ballagh
County: Wexford
Occupation: Accounts Administrator, One Card Solutions
Honours with camogie :
2 Senior All Ireland Titles ’07, ’10, 3 National League Titles ’09-’11, 1 All Star Award ’10, 2 Senior Leinster Titles, Joint Top Scorer in Camogie Championship ’10, 2 Ashbourne Cups (Captain in ’10), 3 Colleges League Medals, 4 Ashbourne All Stars, 1 Fresher All Ireland Title, Fresher æPlayer of the Tournament’ Award, WIT Overall Sports Star 2010, WIT GAA Senior Camogie Player of the Year, 2 Leinster Club Titles ’09, ’10, 7 Senior Co. Titles with Oulart, All Underage titles from u-12 to U-18, 1 Pan Celtic All Ireland, 1 Kilmacud Crokes All Ireland.
Favourite sporting moments:
Winning the Senior Camogie All Ireland in 2007 with Wexford, Winning my first County Championship with my club, Oulart The Ballagh and winning my first Ashbourne Cup with WITàAll brilliant and unforgettable wins!
Worst sporting moment:
Losing the Club All Ireland Semi-Final to Killimor 2010.
Favourite camogie player:
Fiona Dunne (Wexford and Oulart The Ballagh)
Favourite sports star:
Fiona Dunne (Wexford), Tony Browne, Eoin Kelly (Tipperary), Brian O Driscoll (Rugby).
Biggest sporting influence:
My parents, brothers and sister have influenced me most since I started playing. They have all played at the highest level so the advice and support they have given me has helped me greatly when needed.
Do you have any pre-match rituals before big games?
In the warm up I have to finish off with a score over the bar before the team huddle. Also, I get my mother to bless me and all my hurls before every game!
Last book you read:
Mickey Harte’s Book “”Presence is the only thing””.
Last film you watched:
Hangover 2àGreat Film! “”I wish Monkeys could skype!””
Favourite holiday destination:
I’ve only been abroad a few times so Dubai was definitely my favourite destination but hopefully I’ll get to travel around South Africa some day. I better start saving!!
Best piece of sporting advice:
First of all I think it is important to get involved in Sport as you make so many friends (I have friends all over Ireland because of Sport!). Hard work is important in any sport whether it is at training or during matches. Perfecting the skills of Camogie by practising yourself is extremely important. All you need is a ball and a wall!
Worst piece of sporting advice:
To think you know it all. You can get competitive advantage by taking advice from many different people such as coaches, trainers and other experts. You can learn from watching and talking to other sports people and camogie players and teams. Also, being complacent about games or other teams- there is no guarantees in sport!
Favourite music
Beyonce, Rihanna, Take That, Westlife, Mary Black.
Pre match tune: What song do you listen to before every game:
I always listen to a couple of songs before each game- Take That (Greatest Day), Delta Goodrem (Together we are one) and Michael Bolton (Go the distance) are a few of these.
If you did not play camogie, what other sport do you think you would play at a high level?
If I wasn’t playing Camogie, I’d love to play tennis at a high level. I think I’ll just have to settle with watching Wimbledon instead though!
Top two things you would like to see changed in camogie
Two things I would like changed in Camogie would be handpassing goals and the introduction of a closed season in Camogie. Although the handpassing rule benefits forwards greatly I think it would be more beneficial to everyone if you were only allowed use your hurl to score goals. Also, I think the Camogie Association should have a rule similar to hurling where there is an “”off-season””. This will prevent any player from burnout or over-training.
Sports event you would most like to see:
Wimbledon Men’s Final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal!(Federer all the way though!) and Oulart (Men or Women) in the Club All Ireland Finals.
(pictured: Ursula Jacob pictured at this year’s All Ireland Camogie Championship Launch in Croke Park on Wednesday June 1st)
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