Presentation pushing the boundaries in fine style
Commitment of students and teachers alike alike brings results of highest quality
HISTORICALLY, OTHER schools around Wexford were more successful than the Presentation when it came to sports, but with participation strong in general with teenage girls, the Grogan’s Road school’s sporting programme has moved to another level.
It hasn’t happened by accident, as all five of the teachers that we talked to, across five different sporting fields, listed the commitment of the students as a massive factor when delving into why sport has taken a leap in the Presentation in recent years.
There are obviously other reasons, as with soccer and camogie big participation sports for girls in clubs across the county, that helps to feed into the school system and gives students a leg-up when coming into secondary sports.
Parents are obviously a big part of the equation too. Girls are encouraged from a young age to get involved with whatever sport meets their fancy, and again they have that feel for sport, even if they haven’t tried them all when they enter big school.
However, there is one critically important factor, without which none of it would be possible, and that’s the dedication and time the teachers have put into their students and their sport of choice. It’s evidenced below in the Presentation but is widespread across the county.
Right across the board, when talking to the teachers of the Presentation, not one brought up the personal sacrifices involved with training students after school, taking them to competitions around the country at weekends, and organising trips abroad as a group on school holidays.
What does come across from every one of the teachers involved is their joy in the successes of their students on the sporting field. That doesn’t necessarily mean being the best or winning an All-Ireland, that’s down to individual improvements, to growth, it’s down to teams out-performing what anyone thought they were capable of.
Take basketball in the Presentation. In the foreseeable future it’s hardly likely to become the most popular sport in the country, the county, or even the building, but hard work and dedication saw the school reach an All-Ireland semi-final at Junior level and a Senior quarter-final this year.
Deirdre Colfer had been holding up the programme single-handedly until this year when Gillian Stafford, in the Presentation on teaching practice, was able to chip in. Right across the age-ranges, from first years to seniors, there’s a lot to do, but Colfer is energised doing it by the response of the students.
‘We get girls into school who have had no previous contact with basketball,’ Deirdre explained, ‘but they are keen and want to do well at it.
‘I think high-profile players that play both football and basketball help, like Kieran Donaghy and Michael Darragh Macauley, they have raised the profile of basketball as well.
‘I bring them down to watch Waterford Wildcats play once, if not twice, a year if I can, and the players down there are very receptive, they always come over to the girls to say “thanks for coming to support us” and pose for pictures and stuff like that. Some of those are international players so it shows the girls what’s possible for them out there.’
For three evenings a week after school, Colfer has access to the full-size court to train her teams and she’s seeing real commitment across the board, with the first year numbers off the charts.
‘Now we won’t finish out our competition with the current situation, but I never had less than 25 on a Monday evening after school for training, which is very unique.
‘Normally the numbers would dwindle a little bit, but I had two competitive teams in the league this year. One made it to quarter-finals and semi-finals before the competition finished up,’ Colfer said.
As well as trips to Waterford to see the Wildcats play, Colfer is always looking at ways to keep the girls’ interest in basketball high.
She’s under no illusions that for pretty much all her players, it’s not their first sport but she keeps seeking ways of keeping them involved.
She says that the promotion Basketball Ireland are putting into the game now is making a big difference, with streaming of games a great way for her students to keep in touch with the game nationally.
Colfer previously entered her second years as a club team in the South-East league, but midweek journeys to Kilkenny, Carlow or Tipperary are nigh-on-impossible to sustain when the students enter their exam year.
She’s not the only teacher overseeing the entirety of a sporting programme. Interest in equestrian has grown over the last few years, with Maria Kenny putting in countless hours, particularly at weekends, to ensure the Presentation is competing with the rest for the last six years.
Unlike some other sports that have an obvious attraction and an ease of entry, bringing horses down Grogan’s Road and jumping over the railings at the bandstand in St. Peter’s Square is not feasible; maybe a century ago, but not in this day and age.
Instead, Maria keeps an eye on them, checks in with their progress, and is there to advise after a rundown or chat about their latest exploits. She said that ‘all the girls would train themselves, all the girls would either have their own trainer or their parents train them.
‘I would watch their results quite regularly because if they are competing with the Pony Club or with S.J.I., I can see how on form they are or not, and to be fair they tell me straight off, they come up to me and they say, “Miss, look, the horse isn’t jumping well”, or this has happened or that has happened.’
Competing for the school is a different story. They have been able to attract Red Mills and Graphedia as sponsors, meaning they are one of the best-attired teams as well as being one of the most successful.
‘I started getting a few individuals out the first year or two, and then I think I got my first team together maybe the second or third year I was there,’ Maria explained. ‘Now we have up to four teams out, so I’ve about 20 girls on my list that compete regularly.
‘My biggest thing is that it is fun, and every single one of those girls, they’ve never said a bad word. I mean, they’re a seriously competitive bunch of girls and they do everything to try make us proud.’
Winning the Doagh League consistently, winning the big show at Barnadown, they girls have made a habit of success. So much so that their teacher and mentor can’t remember an occasion without it, despite being in competition twice a month.
‘Genuinely, put my hand on my heart, they’ve never came home without a ribbon,’ Kenny beamed. ‘The worst ribbon they’ve ever gotten was third place. There was one show there this year, we had three of the teams in the top six, which was great. So yeah, they love to win!’
Soccer is another that has produced ample winners, but it’s a sport that one might expect to have always been there. Yet the push in the Presentation only happened when Scott Gaynor took things by the scruff of the neck in 2016.
Up to then just the odd team was entered intermittently in the futsal competition, but since then other teachers have come on board, with Rikki O’Leary, Lydia Murphy, Damien Nugent, Cian Doyle and Mick Doran all involved with teams across the age groups, from first years all the way up to the senior team.
Participation in the is huge now, but it all started with a first year team that finished the FAI Schools Leinster ‘B’ competition that first year. Since then they have been winning plenty and made one All-Ireland final, losing the first year decider to Carn- donagh last year.
‘We have gone from having one team four years ago and having 15 or 16 players and robbing players from G.A.A. teams to obviously having at the minute anything between 60 and 70 players,’ Scott ex- plained. ‘Over the few short years there has been a massive growth in it.’
Gaynor is keen to emphasise that the school is lucky to be pulling from a club system that not only helps with facilities but has nurtured ample talent around the county, with the Presentation reaping the rewards.
However, the system is more akin to a roundabout, with the work going on in school also helping to improve the players within its system and sending them in different directions.
That has been further solidified by the school’s link-up with Wexford Youths, adding another exit to the roundabout for players who are at the higher end of the talent and skill level.
‘We formalised that little relationship with Wexford,’ sais Scott about the 2017 link-up. ‘Players would come in and coach- es would come in. Laura Heffernan would have been a past pupil of the school and she was involved, and that helped there.
‘Rianna Jarrett gave us a really good dig out, she came in. Claire O’Riordan had obviously been at Wexford and now over with Duisberg, she came in as ‘Active School’ guest.’
Those influences have borne fruit, with Katie Law the current stand-out, having recently represented Ireland at Under-15 level.
However, along with Law, Aoife Hought- on, Seren Ward, Rita Redmond and Tara Murphy all signed with Youths’ Under-17 side this season, with Zoe Butler linking up with Greystones.
The soccer squads also had a great opportunity to head to Salou last October, and it was something they all enjoyed.
‘We had 50 players over in Spain, every team had two friendlies,’ Gaynor remembered. ‘We had three squads out there, so six matches, we had two train- ing sessions with coaches from different academies around, so that was a really good experience.
The camogie set-up didn’t quite man age to have their fairytale trip to States that had to be cancelled because of the Covid-19 outbreak, but it was the first real hiccup on a fairytale journey to the top table for the school.
Just three years ago, Presentation Secondary School were playing in the ‘C’ provincial competition, winning it but still competing at a lower level. Now they are a competitive ‘A’ grade school, a shining example for others to follow.
‘It’s just a collective effort inside and outside the school,’ explained Ciarán Walsh. ‘Since a number of teachers have come in they’ve kind of broadened the amount of people involved with camogie.
‘We’ve Ann Murphy, Tom Stafford, Aidan Hackett, and we’ve kind of just
been plugging away for a number of years. The local clubs as well, with the catchment area we have we’re quite lucky with the clubs that are feeding into us with Glynn-Barntown, Buffers Alley, St. Martins and Shels, they’re all doing very, very healthy.
‘As a result of that, the raw materials are coming in and we just try to ensure that there’s a culture there that they want to play for the Presentation and that they’re proud to play for their school as well.’
As well as multiple under-age players they have from Under-14 to Minor level, Presentation also have their own member of the Wexford Senior squad in Sinéad Furlong. It’s provided the school with an important link to the highest level of the game in the county, and Walsh believes that is a key example for the younger girls.
‘Playing at ‘A’ level and getting the experience of playing ‘A’ level and they say, “well, why not play for the county, like it might as well be me as the next girl”, and, “I’ll easily be as good if I put my head down and go for it”.’
One thing Walsh says that echoes across the board is how important camaraderie is within the group, and it’s evident across the sports. It’s a school spirit that has seen them punch above their weight and take on historically superior opposition from camogie to soccer, from basketball to equestrian.
‘There would be a very strong bond, an emphasis on the ‘group together’ and working for each other, and that’s probably why they’ve gone and done what they’ve done in the last few years,’ he said.
Realistically, football has historically had a better foothold in the school, having supplied multiple county Senior players over the last couple of decades, with six members of the current squad having attended the Presentaion, including two current students in Ailis Neville and Ciara Bridges.
With five teachers - Joe Rolston, Michael Doyle, Kevin Rowe, John Gormley and Muireann Gahan - involved in mentoring 90 players over three age groups, there is plenty of activity throughout the year.
It’s been tougher for the Presentation to reach the latter stages of provincial competitions due to the structure of their championship.
With just one team making the last eight from the regional mini-groups, it means one bad day can seriously impact a team’s prospects, ruining a whole season in the process.
However, the pluses of getting involved mean Joe Rolston has been ploughing along for the last decade, and he has a message for any new teacher coming into the school.
‘I’d encourage any newly qualified teacher to get involved in extra curricular sport because you do take a lot from it,’ Joe explained.
‘The students themselves are very appreciative of the time and effort your put in, and they also get to see a different side to you too, outside of the classroom, which I think is important for their own development.’