< Previous© December 2018 The Meath Coaster50East Meath UnitedChristmas WishesMay this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note & make way for a fresh and bright New Year for all in 2019. Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas & a Happy & prosperous New Year! May your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill, and may the year ahead be full of content-ment, joy, happiness & success from all at East Meath United.AGMWe held our AGM at the end of Novem-ber & as always an important aspect in our club on the election of new officers & those re-elected returning for the coming season. As the coaster was going to print a full update on the election of officers & club representatives will be available on our social media in due course. We would like to welcome those joining the commit-tee for the next term and wish you well. For those moving on to pastures new thanks for all your help & commitment that you have given to EMU. Annual Awards & PresentationOur annual awards & presentations for 2018 will take place in Reddans in Bettystown on Sun 9th Dec from 1pm/6pm. Our annual Sports Awards have grown to be an excellent event recognising the bril-liance of our sporting teams & players, not just those who won awards, cups or Leagues but to all who made an effort to perform, get fit, participate or volunteer. We have successfully managed to ‘Raise our Game’, with the support of everyone in Minnistown and also to our sponsors. Sport, by its very nature, is about par-ticipation. It is about inclusion and plays a vital role in becoming part of club & community. Well done on another fantas-tic year. As the Coaster was gone to print before www.instagram.com/eastmeathunitedwww.twitter.com/EastMeathUnitedwww.facebook.com/eastmeathunitedfc© December 2018 The Meath Coaster51the awards ceremony a full list of winners in all categories & images will be posted on our social media pages in due course.Here Come The EMU Girls Introducing EMU Belles the girls of East Meath United. They have come so far since their introduction to football in Min-nistown. What started back early 2018 with just a handful of girls, not known that it would take off & fully develop in numbers. Presently see’s around 20 plus girls train at Camp Minnistown whether at the Academy or on Thursday training nights. Led by Sinead McDonnell & as-sisted by Mark Sheahan & Joe Kelly. As the season is now coming to an end we reflect on a great start to girls football in EMU. 2019 our main goal & objective is to further enhance the numbers & to create more active playing teams at different age groups, whilst forming a Lady Director of coaching to keep everything on track. You should also note that many hands makes light work & we encourage more mam-mies to come on board, it's not as daunting or tough as it looks. It’s about participa-© December 2018 The Meath Coaster52tion & inclusion which plays a vital role in becoming part of club & community & should be relaxed fun. For a video intro-duction of the Belles go to https://www.facebook.com/eastmeathunitedfc/vid-eos/2178163158895368/EMU Belles Recruitment 2019Now that the girls have arrived in camp Minnistown we will be looking to in-crease numbers & form teams of suitable age groups. Should you have a daughter or niece that is interested in starting foot-ball or even wanting to return to football then call into us in Minnistown or email registrar@eastmeathunited.ie or contact Sinead within the grounds at training.Double For DevilsWhat a season it's been for our U12 Dev-ils team. Brilliantly managed & coached by Paul Bacon & Sinead McDonnell they have recently completed their league & cup double in the NDSL. A great team outfit of U11’s playing in U12 football is something else, a credit to each & every one of them, parents & coaching team. They have successfully managed to ‘Raise their Game’, with the support of everyone in Minnistown & also to their sponsor Mark Sheahan. Sport, by its very nature, is about participation. It is about inclusion & plays a vital role in becoming part of club & community. Well done to all on another fantastic year. Im-ages of them securing their league cham-pionship win away to Bohemian FC can be located www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156753785734184&type=1&l=ad86c48869 Sketchers FAI CupOur Galaxy team are our only representa-tives left in the Sketchers cup & in rd3 were due to play Cloghertown but good for the lads received a 3-0 walkover to rd 4 & a trip to Hunky Dory Park in Drogheda where they faced the awaiting Laytown Utd FC, our near neighbours on the gold coast & everything was Hunky © December 2018 The Meath Coaster53Dory for them as they advanced to the North Leinster Regional Semi Finals on a scoreline of 2-0. Goals from Dav & Ben P.Well done Damo/Glen & the Galaxy lads on another great win & commiserations to Dave Conroy & his Laytown outfit who gave a great account of themselves. In the regional semi final Galaxy will make to the visit to Kingscourt Harps date/time TBC.NDSL UpdatesOur Panthers found their winning ways again in their penultimate league game of the season at home v Trinity Donagh-mede winning on a scoreline of 3-0 in their U12 A league. For their last game of the season was a home fixture against Rush which ended in a 1-1 draw This now completes their season, thanks to Anto, Dave, Ru for all they have put in to this season. For our U12 B Devils one pt was need to be crowned league champions to add to their NDSL Cup win, and that © December 2018 The Meath Coaster54came with an away win 2-0 against Bohs sealed the ti-tle for the Devils this followed then the following week an away win 3-1 against Kinsealy. A great season for all, thanks to Paul & Sinead for all their hard work through-out the season. Our U12 D Blues team sit in second place with one game to go cannot win the league but guaran-teed to finish in the top 3. U13D is prov-ing to be a tight tussle with still a number of games to go, while any of the top 4 can seriously mount a challenge. The Ti-gers recent victories over Clonee at 2-1 & Balscadden 1-0 see’s them top the table, but all is yet to play for in this group.PDP 2 / KickstartRecently in Navan there was two days of intense coaching for seven of our coaches to complete their PDP2. Covered in this course coaches will learn about the Player Development Plan & the development of players aged between 9-12 years. Coaches will develop through discussion, observa-tion, identifying, listening, questioning, recording and feedback. Coaches will plan, organise, implement and analyse their own coaching sessions.All passed with flying colours. Course Outline : The-ory covered The Way Forward – Player Development Plan - What is football? - Observation of the game - Planning training sessions - The Kick Start / PDP 2 Player - The Kick Start / PDP 2 Coach - Practical - Technical practices - Attack-ing – Passing and control, dribbling and heading - Defending - Transition - Coach-ing practice. Well done Mark, Dermot, Richard, Nicky, Neil, Noel & David thank you for your service to the kids, the club & sacrific-ing your whole weekend to attend. Now put your knowledge to the test & practice what you’ve learned.Coaches Corner - What A Year !As 2018 draws to an end and with our 20th Anniversary just on the horizon, it's with © December 2018 The Meath Coaster55great pride that we take a look back on a hugely successful year at EMU. This chapter in our recent history closes but so much has been achieved in the past five years and this season in particular seemed to really reap the rewards of previous hard work done over that pe-riod. We sometimes forget that not that long ago we faced eviction from Minnistown and were on the brink of financial ruin. You'd hardly think this was the case, driv-ing into a floodlit grounds on any night of the week now you can find a host of teams availing of top class training on our state of the art all weather. I was especially struck this week upon seeing the pictures of Seven of our most recent graduates of the FAI coach education program, along with the numerous other coaches who this year completed a host of badges, have sac-rificed their time to improve their skills. Earlier in the year 16 of our coaches took part in our in house PDP1 course. The contribution made by these men and women to our club cannot be under estimated. The on field successes of so many of our teams are well documented but some other achievements throughout the year may not be as well known. Our Academy has grown to over 70 children this season. One major result of this has seen TWO girls teams formed. Two new U8's were formed and we entered a team in the in-augural U7's format. Running in conjunc-tion with this is our Football For All Program. Goalkeep-ers sessions continue weekly. Our 2004/05 players enjoyed a memorable trip to Manchester & Liverpool. Our Football Festival exceed-ed all expectations again this year with many of our teams attending further blitzes and competitions. Our two FAI summer camps were a sell out again and most teams attended the Aviva and United Park at various times over the course of the season. Central to ALL of the above is our coaches. Without them none of the above would be possible. The same guys and girls help at Academy on Sat mornings and return again to manage teams and possibly help out at FFA in the afternoon.Monthly Man-agers meetings and coaching workshops are well attended. Luke and Daniel now run the hugely popular keepers sessions. Our annual managers charity match has raised much needed funding over the years for local causes as the guys and girls show further support for the community. We owe a massive debt of gratitude to those who continue to do their best to help our sons and daughters try to fulfil their potential as young footballers. Finally a special mention to those coaches who also hold key positions on the man-agement committee, their hard work con-tinues to assist with the development of the club on and off the pitch and I've been particularly honoured to have worked with these people over the past few years.© December 2018 The Meath Coaster56Laytown & Bettystown Golf ClubPictured here are some presentations at Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club. Frank Flynn, Robt B Daly & Son Ltd (sponsor) and Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club Captain, Bryan Collins, pre-sent the Golfer of the Year 2018 trophy to overall winner, Dan Hughes.Patrick Cannon, winner of the Joe Moore Trophy (sponsored by Raymond Moore, Hibernia Steel Products Ltd) and the out-right winner of the Senior Hampers Com-petition (sponsored by Dr Harry Barry) is presented with his prize by Laytown & Bettystown Captain, Bryan Collins.Alan Mullen, the overall winner of the Winter League at Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club is presented with his prize by competition sponsor, Mark Doran (Jack Doran Motors) and Captain Bryan Col-lins.Peter McElearney, winner of the Ham-per Competition sponsored by Callaghan Buthers, Bettystown is presented with his prize by Laytown & Bettystown Captain, Bryan Collins.Don't Forget The GOAL MileGOAL Miles are held at Christmas in villages, towns and cities right across Ireland. Now in its 36th year, the event sees tens of thousands of participants run, jog or walk a Mile and raise funds and aware-ness for GOAL's programmes in the de-veloping world. Why not drop into either St. Colmcilles GAA or St. Patricks GAA Stamullen at 11am on Christmas Day. © December 2018 The Meath Coaster57Congratulations to our U12’s pictured top right who have progressed to the last 32 of the SFAI cup having defeated Glenmuir United of Dundalk away from home 1 nil thanks to a great team effort and the winning goal coming from Jake Hough. The team are now in an open draw for the last 32 in Ireland due to take place in December and also qualifies them for the SFAI North Leinster Regional cup where they will play Clonee. The club want to wish the players and coaches the very best in both cups and once details are available on dates etc we will be all there to support the lads.Our U13 team pictured bottom right also did extremely well just narrowly missing out on a place in the last 32 when they were beaten 2-1 by a very good Duleek team in what was a thrill-ing cup game played in Castlemartin. Hard luck lads but the club is very proud of what the team and coaches achieved.Onwards and upwards for next season!!DONACARNEY CELTIC F.C.SFAI Cup UpdateWe would like to wish all our members a very Happy Christmas and invite you all to come and see Santa in Moran’s Shed on Sunday 23rd December and all our members and siblings are invited along to get a selection box. © December 2018 The Meath Coaster58Laytown United SFCwww.laytownunitedsfc.com / www.facebook.com/LaytownUnitedSFCLast weekend the 2018 season came to an end and it has given us the op-portunity to reflect on the many memora-ble moments we have had throughout the year, both on and off the pitch.We were honoured to be able to host the Max Mason Memorial match (photo above and Our u13’s enjoyed a fabulous team trip to Liverpool, photo below.We were the first football club in Ireland to make soccer stars from our players with our very own Stick-er Album© December 2018 The Meath Coaster59Lassies were formed and have gone from strength to strength since last April we are very excited at what the future holds for these ladies Both our u13’s and u14’s had the fantastic opportunity to play in United ParkOur u11’s won the Seaside Cup in their age groupWe had tremendous support for our larg-est ever fundraising venture and our for-mer player Jack Tunstead was the overall winner of the Kube, sponsored by Alan Mullen and Sons Builders Ltd.Our very first all girl team The Laytown Our u12’s have had a hugely successful season and they will compete, in an all-new, Elite league next year.The latest stars to graduate from our acad-emy…. Congratulations to coaches David Carroll, Gary Holmes and Our all new u7 team §Next >