< Previous© March 2019 The Meath Coaster60kick to hold 6th place and take her spot on the podium.Brennan secures Bronze for IrelandHolly was in international action again on the 23rd, it’s her 3rd time representing Ireland in cross country. She helped the intermediate girls Irish team to bronze in The Schools International Cross Country Championships, an outstanding achieve-ment. Holly was the second Irish girl home and finished 14th place overall. Meath road relay races The Meath road relay championships took place on the 24th, 3 teams represented Cilles AC and two of them claimed med-als! Cilles ‘A’ took silver in grade b and Cilles ‘B’ took silver in grade c. What a busy month!Holly Siofra Meg Lauren at indoor championships (1)Aaron Holly & Liam at the Meath athletic awardsMairead Aaron Holly & Liam at the Meath athletic awardsCiaran Liam Aaron Sean at indoor championshipschampionships (1)© March 2019 The Meath Coaster61Meath Athletic Awards2018 was a wonderful year for our club, many high points and personal achieve-ments at all levels. It’s wonderful to see the hard work put in by the athletes and coaches being acknowledged. The Meath Athletic awards were held on the 24th of Feb and four of our finest youth run-ners were honoured. Holly Brennan and Lauren Murphy both received a special award for winning a national medal in 2018. Holly then received the award for best u17-19 athlete in cross country, Lau-rens’ mum Mairead accepted an award on Laurens behalf for best junior athlete in cross country. Liam Hyland received an award for best u17-19 track athlete and Aaron Smith received best junior track athlete. A huge well done to do all, your club and all who know you are very proud of your achievements.Cilles AC Summer leagueThe summer league is an excit-ing initiative within the club to get everyone out, competing and doing a bit of bonding over the Summer months. Participating athletes are allo-cated to a team. Each team member can earn points for their team by taking part in races from a prescribed list. The list is mainly consists of races in the local/Meath area to promote our neighbouring clubs races. This runs until mid Septem-ber and finishes with an awards night, if it’s half as good as last years, it’s going to be amazing!!!B5 raceOur annual 5 mile will take place on Tues-day 16th Of July at 8pm. Keep an eye out for updates! Bigi linn ag rith §Holly at the all Ireland schools championshipschampionships (1)Lauren at the All Ireland schools championships© March 2019 The Meath Coaster62East Meath Unitedwww.instagram.com/eastmeathunitedwww.twitter.com/EastMeathUnitedwww.facebook.com/eastmeathunitedfcFrom Mum to Coach and back to a Mum, by Ciara GrantWhat possessed me to take on coach-ing under 8’s soccer some of you might ask? Honestly I don’t really know for sure what made me volunteer to take the team, yes I said volunteer. After less than a year with EMU I offered to take on the new under 8’s, my son’s under-8s team. I had visions of being a soccer mum last year when we joined the club, rock up to academy session and drink coffee and chat. Ha I did chat but it was to the won-derful Dave Gaffney who quickly encour-aged me to make the most of my other coaching qualification and add soccer to my growing list of activities. Roping me in to academy sessions once id my PDP1 complete, and I loved it. The rest as they say was a forgone conclusion and here we are.If you imagine that coaching under age soccer will have stalking the touchline like Sir Alex Ferguson, making constant © March 2019 The Meath Coaster63calculations and changes to our formation to exploit the gaps in our opponents’ for-mations you’re in for a rude awakening.As our first training session approached I got my folders ready filled with forms and information for parents to illustrate my managerial commitment to my new team – it took five minutes of my first session to bring me down to earth and realise how out of touch with under-8s I was. Gone were all the plans of an amazing strict formation and drills, as I watched 16 kids, including my son, all crowd round the ball, playing chase the ball like a swarm of bees instead of anything resembling football I was at a loss! My dreams of developing the next EMU super team were in tatters I thought that a pragmatic approach was necessary – if I could just get them sticking to posi-tions and attempting the odd pass then that would be a huge step forward.Here’s the thing I didn’t appreciate – 7 year olds don’t care. They don’t care about what some boring grown up has got to say about football; in their eyes, every minute I droned on about tactics was a minute they weren’t running around hav-ing fun. I may have taught the kids to pass a football and have a bit of understanding about formations but they have taught me way more about kids, about my son and about being a ‘soccer mom’.Throw a football into a group of 7 year olds and they’re all going to chase that ball – because it’s fun! They don’t care about standing at left back or covering defence, © March 2019 The Meath Coaster64they want to run about with their mates and have a laugh. I’ve noticed the more I focus on tactics the fewer smiles I get, my son has told me soccer can sometimes be boring. I’d already sensed it but here it was in plain language for me – the thing he loved to do more than anything else, chase a ball with his mate could so eas-ily be spoilt by the teacher part of me his mother. At the very next training session I ripped up the tactics – threw the ball into the middle of the pitch and told them to have a go at it, breaking up their play with some fun drills. They loved it, that laugh-ter and craziness that only seven year olds can bring came rushing back.Now my life as a coach is less Sir Alex Ferguson and more substitute Mum/ nurse/ and snot wiper and I couldn’t love it more. I’ve got to know the kids and their individual personalities; I listen to their daft stories, laugh at their terrible jokes and patch them up when they fall over. I’m basically there to facilitate fun with their friends, offering the odd tip that gets completely ignored and keeping injuries to a minimum. As long as I can tie their laces for them, provide their jerseys and don’t impede their fun then I’m doing my job as far as they’re concerned!But here’s what I’ve learnt – while they may not care or be ready to embrace my tactical philosophies; they all respond amazingly to chats about fair play and good sportsmanship. Kids have an inher-ent honesty and sense of right and wrong that is refreshingly black and white; there are no grey areas with 7 year olds! Sure they make terrible decisions, get an-noyed, get carried away and can’t seem to stand still for longer than 5 seconds but they are all amazing little sponges, ready to soak up whatever example they are pre-sented with. So if you go back to what made me take on coaching under 8’s soccer, and stick with it it’s that the fulfilment, and the smile on my sons face after a long day. I’d recom-mend it to anybody, and no experience is necessary.Stars of the Future…. Let us show you… by Paul ByrneEMU Academy 2019, another year for this very progressive and fast developing Football Club. My name is Paul Byrne, EMU Academy Coordinator. I recently came on board and honestly forgot how much fun the Academy was as it has been a few years since I was involved with this age group. The EMU Academy is a very successful programme and this is all down to the very hardworking & dedicated vol-unteers. Academy is on a Saturday morn-ing from 9.20am till 10.30am in Min-nistown. If you would like to bring your child down to give it a go for a few weeks they would be very welcome. If any par-ent would like to give a hand at Academy or in the café we would be delighted if you could help out.There are no strangers here, just friends that you haven’t met yet!Paul Byrneacademy@eastmeathunited.ie §Our U12 Navy team got their first compet-itive season off to a great start in the Drogheda League securing all three points in a great opening game away to Termonfeckin. Well done lads, and best of look to the players and coaches in the new season.Congratulations to Louth School Girls League for organizing what was a fantastic opening blitz! Our Diamonds are already looking forward to the next blitz days over the coming weeks.If your daughter is interested in play-ing football or if you’d be interested in volunteering to help us allow these young girls get involved in team sports then please get in contact with us on Facebook, Instagram or email us: info@donacarneyceltic.comDONACARNEY CELTIC F.C.U12 NavyDCFC DiamondsCongratulations to our U7 Donacarney Diamonds who got their footballing journey underway this month with their first two games in the newly form Louth School Girls League. The leagues first blitz day saw 164 girls participate in a fantastic day of football held in the Dundalk Sports Centre. Summer Soccer SchoolsOur FAI Summer Soccer Camps are now open for booking. So make sure to book your place today...!Camp 1: 8th to 12th JulyCamp 2: 22nd to 26th JulyThe cost for the week long camp is just €70 and also includes a full training kit.Visit www.summersoccerschools.ie to book your place. This event is open to members and non members © March 2019 The Meath Coaster66Our u8’s and 9’s had the privilege of giving a Guard of Honour and playing a match at half time during the Drogheda United V Wexford Youths Match, thank you so much to all involved in organis-ing this, it was a fantastic opportunity and thoroughly enjoyable evening for all the young players and their families.On Saturday 6th April, Laytown Utd team of 2010-2018 will once again take on the Donacarney team of 2010-2018 in the second Annual Max Mason Memorial Match. The lads will play for the Max Ma-son Trophy, which has been very kindly sponsored by Southgate Barbers. The event is promising to be a fantastic day for all, the support that has already been show is phenomenal and we are extreme-ly grateful to each and every person who has offered their help. There are amazing prizes up for grabs in the unmissable raf-fle, we hope to see as many people as pos-sible there at the match but if you can’t make it to Seafield on the day tickets are on sale in Tesco Bettystown, Moran’s Pub Mornington, Laytown United Clubhouse or from any of the Woods family. All pro-ceeds raised will go directly to JIGSAW Laytown United SFCwww.laytownunitedsfc.com / www.facebook.com/LaytownUnitedSFC© March 2019 The Meath Coaster67YMH. Last years fundraiser raised in ex-cess of €13,500 and we would really like for this years to match that figure so please help us and show your support. We are delighted to announce that we will be running a two day Football camp dur-ing the Easter Holidays, this camp is open to everyone and places are allocated on a first come first served basis, we still have a few spaces remaining to book a place please text LIAM on 0874174371 §© March 2019 The Meath Coaster68Stamullen Football Club Club news Karl, Peter and Martin’s Under 7’s played their first ever match last week in a sun drenched Gormanston. Their opponents were Balscadden. Well done to both teams on serving up a great display of tackling, passing and shooting. Everyone played to to the best of their ability making it an exciting opening fix-ture. So, a big well done to the Under 7’s who are, Eoghan McL, Ruaidhri, Harry, Lukas, Ciaran, Caiden, Ethan, Callum, Noah, Eoghan W, Adam, Shaun, Rian, Adamas, Daniel, Aaron, Killian and EJ. Thanks to all the parents for coming out to support the lads. Wishing the coaches and the team a brilliant season.mornings on the grass outside gormanston sports hall at 10am-11am,for ages 4 up-wards. New players are always welcome, so if you have a budding little soccer play-er who would love to give it a try please bring them along. AGMStamullen FC held our AGM on Mon-day 4th ofMarch. We would like to thank everyone who attended. We had an ab-solutely brilliant turnout. The following were voted in as committee members: Chairperson - David Reddin, Secretary- Marcus Kelly, Treasurer- Niall Bracken Club development officer - Darren Abraham,Boys development officer- Steve Jordan,Girls development officer - Alison Brennan, Child welfare officer - Grainne Carmody, Senior liaise officer - Trevor Dunphy, PRO- Niamh Bracken-Bonnes.Disciplinary committee: Marcus Kelly, Grainne Carmody, David Mc Geogh, Da-vid Byrne, Barry James, Nic Benoit.Fundraising committee: Grainne Carmody, Vicky Kelly, Lisa HandWelcome to all our new committee mem-bers and thanks for coming on board. Here’s to another great year for the Club.Club Contact Details:Email - stamullenfc@gmail.com Facebook - www.facebook.com/stamullenfcClub Secretary - Marcus Kelly – 0851477825Website – www.stamullenfc.com Easter camp!We are really excited to be hosting our second Easter camp this year, that will run for an amazing 4 days from the 15th-18th ! Lots of new soccer skills and fun is on the menu. This camp is open for all kids up to the age of 13, open for members and non members. All details listed above. Sibling discount given. See you there. Any ques-tions or to book please email the club or send a facebook message. Academy Our academy has started back Saturday © March 2019 The Meath Coaster69EST. 1950Cockhill Road, Stamullen, Co. MeathT: 086 1731739 E: pro.stpatricksmeath@gmail.comFacebook Stpatricksgaastamullen/Naomh Padraig GAALGFA UpdateWe have seven teams from senior down now competing in the re-spective leagues.A good news story is our under 12’s. Not only have we two teams competing but such are the numbers we have had to form another development team.Big thanks here to Mary and Boots Grant who are taking charge of this group and we hope to have at least one challenge match every 1 - 2 weeks. They will debut this weekend with a home game v St Colmcilles Saturday afternoon; I will also be heavily involved in this group as we want to send out the message there is football for every girl who wants to join this club.We hope to organise a summer in house league for this team with some neigh-bouring teams all leading to them com-peting in the official autumn leagues.Bingo is steadily building, but we would like to see more support from family’s amongst our members, so please post on your group chats to gain support. We have a new starting time of 7pm due to some requests from parents who would like to attend with their children. Everyone is welcome!!We have girls playing with various age groups with Meath teams and all doing well within their completions. Just like the Meath Senior men’s team the ladies team including St Pats Emma White have quali-fied for promotion and league final with games still to play in the league rounds.Team TrainingAll our underage teams are back training and starting their first rounds of Go games etc so the club is a hive of activity again after the winter break and it's great to see so many kids filling the pitches.Senior Football ChampionshipOur Senior Football Championship Round 1 takes place on Saturday evening the 6th of April in Duleek at 4pm. St.Patricks will go up against Skryne and we would love to see all our supporters there to cheer the team on. We would like to wish Adam Byrne and Alan Vickers the very best of luck with their travels and they will be a big loss to our team. §Next >