As part of the Camogie Association’s under-age development model, one of the areas of focus in 2012 is the roll out of the Under15 development programme.
The idea of this model is to encourage players from all clubs in the county to participate in organised sessions (Schools of Excellence) over a set number of weeks.
This programme concluded on Saturday Oct 13th in Portlaoise GAA grounds with our Phase 2 National participation blitz. These blitzes encourage participation with enjoyment as the central theme of the event.
Saturday’s blitz provided the opportunity for fledgling camogie counties across the country to challenge each other as the U15 squads of Mayo, Cavan, Laois, Westmeath and Roscommon played a series of games at the excellent Portlaoise facility. These counties wouldn’t normally get the chance to play one another and certainly made the most of the opportunity as they served up some excellent camogie.
Sincere thanks to Portlaoise GAA Club for the use of their fantastic facilities and to our generous sponsor Colgan Sports for their support.
Thanks to all the counties who participated and to their mentors for the time they dedicate to these young players.
Camogie For All Workshops
As part of the Camogie Association’s ‘Camogie for All’ project, funded under the European Equality Innovation Fund, the Camogie Association have designed, developed and are currently delivering workshops on Adopted Physical Activity in Camogie to cater for players with physical, learning and sensory disabilities.
The targeted attendees are teachers, coaches, parents and tutors of camogie coach education courses.
One workshop is being delivered in each of the provinces. Connacht and Leinster workshops were delivered on Oct 5th & 6th and have been very well received, while the Munster workshop took place on Wednesday Oct 17th in Mary Immaculate College of Education sports complex
16 participants took part in the workshop, which is designed to give coaches ideas and inspiration to adapt their Camogie sessions to include girls with a disability.
This was followed by the attendance of over 100 school children in Athlone IT for Camogie For All as well as a very large turn-out in Ballgawley for the Ulster Camogie for All Workshop on Saturday October 20th.
Those who attend learn the theory behind Adapted Physical Activity and Disability Sports, how to develop fun warm up activities, drills, game layout and cool downs to include all ability levels and discuss barriers and potential solutions to participation
Sincere thanks to programme co-ordinator Sarah Flynn for the design and delivery of the workshops, to all the participants who contributed so enthusiastically to the evening and to all venues including MICE and AIT for their fantastic facilities.
Meanwhile, up in Donegal camogie fans are getting ready for Winter Leagues.
Donegal Town Primary School Hurling & Camogie winter league took place last Tuesday (October 16th) at Four Masters GAA grounds.
Teams of 7-aside each played 3 games of 10mins per half. The two teams who finished with the most points at the end of the group stages competed in the finals.
The winning team in the hurling competition was St Francis National School who beat Killymard National School in the final.
Scoil Aodh Ruadh agus Nuala won the camogie competition beating St Francis national school in a tightly contested game.
The Hurling competition was last played in 1993 which was won by Killymard and it was the first year that the Camogie Competition was played.
A huge thank you to all the teachers and players from the participating schools and the Four Masters GAA club for hosting and running the event.
Finally, a secondary schools blitz was held in Letterkenny last Wednesday October 17th. Over 60 girls took part in the competition while another blitz is scheduled for November 13th where the girls will get another chance to compete for the Donegal Secondary schools winter cup.
For more information on Camogie Development in Donegal contact Yvonne Byrne: Phone (087) 6235855 and Email: yvonne@camogie.ie
Pictured: Patricipating teams in the Colgan Sports U15 Participation Blitz in Portaloise
* Note Camogie For All: “This project is co-funded by the European Union under the PROGRESS Programme 2007-2013. The European Commission is not responsible for the content of the project and any views expressed in its implementation do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of the European Commission.”
