Annual Underage Awards Night a huge success

Post date: Nov 29, 2011 9:15:49 PM

Annual Underage Awards Night a huge success at Edenderry GAA.

On Friday night last Edenderry GAA Clubhouse was the venue for the annual awards ceremony for all underage teams in the club.

A large crowd gathered in the main hall from early in the evening and the array of trophies, cups and medals at the top table told the story of another eventful and successful year for Edenderry GAA.

Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Tom Reilly and he welcomed everyone to the club for what he described as an important evening for all the young players. He thanked the parents who had supported their young children throughout the year and helped with transport to away games.

Tom also welcomed our special guests for the evening, members of the Senior Football Team, Richie Dalton, Stephen Guing & Keith McGuiness and Sandra Blong, captain of the Senior Ladies Team.

When proceedings got underway, Tom invited Mary O’Reilly to come forward and call the names of all U10 Girls who had played Ladies Football in 2011. Each girl was presented with a medal to mark their achievements.

Next up Ricky McMahon as U10 Football mentor named Eoghan Brerton as U10 Player of the Year while Sean McMahon picked up the U10 Football Merit Award.

As U10 Hurling mentor Declan McCraith spoke about the U10 Hurlers who had won the Kildare Spring League, each player was called up to receive their winners medal. Declan also announced Ben Lynch as the Merit Award winner while Martin Keogh Jnr won the U10 Hurling Player of the Year.

Joanne Clancy was then called upon as U12 Ladies Football mentor and she spoke of the great dedication of the girls throughout the year. Joanne announced joint Merit Award winners at U12 as Faye Dunne & Lauryn Ogelsby while U12 Ladies Football Player of the Year was Maeve Brerton.

Cormac Nolan as U11 & U12 Football mentor explained to everyone gathered that Edenderry GAA had continued to enter two teams at U12 to ensure everyone got the opportunity to play continuously throughout the year. Cormac stated that the aim of the club and the teams were to gain experience playing Football and not winning which he felt worked very well for the team in 2011. He then named Peter Butler as U10 Football Merit Award winner while U11 Football Player of the Year was Ciaran Nolan. The U12 Football Merit award went to Gary Gorman and U12 Football Player of the Year was Bobby Reynolds.

Garrett Reilly then spoke about the U12 Football Skills Award. Edenderry GAA had been asked to provide a player to take part in a skills competition which took place at half time in the County Final. Garrett explained that Edenderry hadn’t just taken the Dowling Cup away that day as Cathal Farrell had also emerged victorious in the Skills Competition. Garrett asked Cathal to come up and accept his award from Richie Dalton.

The U12 Hurling Manager then announced the winners of the U12 Hurling Merit Award as Gary Farrell, a player who had improved a lot during the year while Oisin O’Grady was U12 Hurling Player of the Year for his commitment to the team.

Before the next presentation Tom Reilly called on Paschal Walsh to speak on behalf of the Boys NS U13 team management. Paschal thanked his fellow mentors John Kelliher and Gerry Morris for their hard work. He praised the dedication shown by the players who had trained after school and even trained during school holidays in preparation for the final. He told the assembled audience that while the Senior team had done tremendously this year he was confident that the future was very bright for Edenderry given the talent emerging from the school teams over the last 5 or 6 years. He also praised the work being done at the club with the Cul Redz in 2011 and wished the club every success with this new initiative in the future.

Sean Fitzgerald, Principal of Edenderry BNS then spoke on behalf of the school. He thanked Paschal, John & Gerry for their work throughout the year with the school team and said he was very proud of the respect and honesty displayed by all of the school panel. Each player was then brought forward to receive their medal for winning the 2011 Cumann na mBunscoil Div 1 Final recently.

A special award was then announced as Sean Fitzgerald asked team captain Cian Farrell to accept an award marking the remarkable achievement of playing on 4 winning school teams in 5 years a feat which will never be repeated.

In U14 Ladies Football, Gabriel Gorman thanked all the girls for their efforts during the year. He announced the joint Merit Award winners as Ciara O’Connor & Nicole Farrelly. Clare Connolly was then announced as U14 Ladies Football Player of the Year.

John Kelliher spoke of the St Vincent’s U14 Football Tournament that Edenderry had entered this year to get extra games for the entire squad and how well it had worked. Edenderry reached the final and John asked all the players to come up and accept trophies marking their achievements. Micky Usher and Willie Farrell then announced the Player of the Year and Merit Award winners. John Downey won the Merit Award while Aaron Moules collected the Player of the Year award. Jamie O’Connor was also honoured with Player of the Tournament trophy.

Gabriel Gorman was a busy man on the night and he was soon back to the microphone to speak about the U16 Ladies Football team had performed throughout the year. These young girls won the U16 “A” Championship and showed great belief in themselves during close hard fought games. Each girl was then called up to receive her winners medal. Gabriel then announced that Shauna Farrelly was the U16 Ladies Football Merit Award winner while Rebecca Gorman was U16 Ladies Player of the Year.

Before the final presentation of the evening Tom Reilly called on Fiona Brady, Chairperson of Edenderry Ladies GAA and John Kelliher, Chairperson of Bord na nOg Edenderry GAA to address the audience.

Fiona thanked everyone for their attendance, she thanked all sponsors in particular Andy Walsh of Walsh Kealey Accountants. Fiona also thanked all Ladies coaches in 2011 for their hard work. John Kelliher thanked all the parents for their help in 2011 with transport, he thanked all the coaches and the committee for their hard work and he wished all teams success in 2012.

The final presentation of the evening was then made by David Cullen as U16 Football mentor. David spoke of the honesty and determination of Matthew O’Grady while naming him as U16 Football Merit Award winner. David also spoke of the talent and skill of Ciaran Farrell and marked him out as a player who will surely represent the club at County level in the future. Ciaran was named as U16 Football Player of the Year.

Tom Reilly then brought the evening to a close by again thanking everyone for attending. He reminded the players that refreshments were being served to them following the presentation. He asked for another round of applause for the Senior Footballers who had presented all the awards, Richie Dalton, Stephen Guing, Keith McGuiness and Sandra Blong.