Chance to become GAA performance analysts
THE final phase of the Centre of Excellence in Scarden is now taking place.
This final part of the major development is costing € 300,000 and includes completion of the floodlit training area. The County Board is indebted to its Club Sligo members who have supported the project.
Five years ago Sligo GAA was in debt to the tune of € 1.7m which incorporated some legacy debt and the purchase of the 25 acres of land to develop their new Centre of Excellence.
A new Finance committee was set up to address both the debt position and the development of the Centre of Excellence.
Arising from this Club Sligo was launched in 2014 as a Fundraising vehicle to support the development of the Centre of Excellence and the development of our teams.
As a result of this, Sligo GAA embarked on their new Centre of Excellence three years ago with a view to providing the best training facilities for their Clubs, their Development squads and their County teams.
The result has been the creation of a € 3.2m complex at Scarden which is now fully operational and fulfilling all the initial aspirations set out by the County Board. The County Board have received generous financial support from Croke Park, Connaught Council and the Government through the Sports Lottery Fund and acknowledge the tremendous support received from their Club Sligo members over the past three years.
The support from the 500 members has enabled Sligo GAA to concentrate on delivering this Legacy project and provide top class facilities for Clubs and all their teams. In 2016, they have seen the playing facilities cater for over 500 matches and training sessions.
The Gym and meeting facilities have been utilised on over 200 occasions.
The Centre of Excellence in Scarden has facilitated its Clubs, County Football and Hurling teams, Development squads, Secondary and National Schools and Sligo Ladies GAA. The final phase of the Centre of Excellence costing € 300,000 is now underway.
This involves the completion of a new floodlit Sand based training area specifically aimed at saving the main playing pitches during the Winter/ Spring and thereby saving on maintenance costs. THIS week is another busy one around the county with lots of workshops and courses being held.
Club Officer training takes place on Thursday evening in the Radisson at 7.30pm for chairpersons, Secretaries, Pros, Treasurers, Coiste na nOg or any other club representatives. All are welcome.
The Connacht GAA Centre in Bekan Co. Mayo will host a Performance Analysis workshop on Saturday March 4th.
The workshop is aimed at people involved in the role of Performance and Video Analysis from introductory to applied level at both club and county level.
This workshop will form the first step on the road to becoming an accredited GAA Performance Analyst.
The day will include both discussions and tasks relating to the role of the Performance Analyst.
This will offer participants the opportunity to interact with other people who share similar roles in different environments and discuss developments within the area and best practice.
In other news, St John’s took part in the Páidí Ó Sé tournament at the weekend.
This took place in Dingle as John’s were in the Intermediate competition.
In schools’ news, St. Attacta’s booked a place in this year’s Connacht Senior A schools’ final when they held of the challenge of St Jarlath’s and this now means the Tubbercurry school will have two big finals over next couple of weeks with the Junior final taking place on Tuesday the 28th February.
The Sigerson Cup took place at the weekend at the Connacht Centre of Excellence and a number of Sligo footballers were involved.
Diarmuid Gallagher of St. Molaise Gaels was part of Liverpool Hope University,
Arthur Wall Geevagh was part of the GMIT Letterfrack,
Peter Patton Owenmore Gaels was part of the Royal College of Surgeons,
Conor Heraghty Calry/ St. Joseph’s and Paul Brennan were part of the Marino institute of Education.
A Foundation Hurling Referees’ course will be run over the next month by Connacht GAA.
Anyone interested in becoming a hurling referee is invited along to the course which will be tutored by National GAA Refereeing Tutors Michael Nee and Alan Kelly. Alan Kelly ( Galway) is currently on the National Referees’ Panel and is a fountain of knowledge on the current hurling refereeing circuit. He regularly referees top games at National level.
The schedule for the course is as follows: Night1: Thursday 23rd February at 7.30 until 9.30 in the Connacht GAA Centre.
Night2: Wednesday 1st March at 7.30 until 9.30 in the Connacht GAA Centre.
Night3: Wednesday 15th March at 7.30 until 9.30 in the Connacht GAA Centre. Handball Update The 40 x 20 Connaught championship singles finals were played this week.
Well done to Laura Keever, Collooney and Michael Murphy, Castleconnor who both won Connaught titles in Claremorris, Good luck to all Sligo handballers playing doubles over the coming weeks.