Strictly Sligo Rugby for club
SLIGO Rugby Club is preparing for a major fundraiser in March which will support the ongoing development plans in Hamilton Park for years to come.
Dancers are getting their outfits prepared and steps ready for Strictly Sligo Rugby which is coming to the Radisson Blu hotel on March 23rd.
With a top events management company in Dublin on board to help make this one of the best nights in Sligo this year, a lot of planning has already been done to make it a huge success.
John Keegan, who is the Chairman of the committee involved in running the event said everyone is really looking forward to it.“I suppose we’ve been working on this for nearly three months or so. It is a big undertaking trying to organise an event of this size, draw sponsorship and a lot more but it’s been really good. When we spoke about doing Strictly which is not a new phenomenon by any means we decided to speak to a number of clubs around the country to see what ideas could be done, so we spoke to clubs in the likes of Cork and Dublin too.”
The main reason for embarking on an event of this size is to raise money for the rugby club’s development John explained. “In terms of the club’s development plan, the development plan is for the next five years realistically. About four years ago I managed a team and there was a training pitch so mucky you’d be up to your knees. We’ve got the 4G pitch now and it’s great. All the kids are back, they had been years training in the IT and some didn’t even know they were members of Sligo Rugby Club, it’s great that they’re all out here now.”
John has three sons who play rugby, eldest Robbie has since retired while Mark and Jack are on the Seniors. “They’re a great bunch out there and I never played rugby myself and I regret it. The mood in the club is really fantastic and they are really focussed. Ross (Mannion) has brought in a few lads like Tommy Craddock for physical training and in the pre-season this year, I went along to one or two of them and my god they worked their butts off. They are determined to win and with a bit of work hopefully they will. They did brilliantly against Lansdowne and had the two best tries by a mile,” he added. “Development is ongoing and next on the agenda is the dressingrooms. We’ve got the Capital Grant and fundraising will be ongoing for that, depending on the funding it will either be this year or next year.
“With Strictly, we wanted to do fundraising to a high standard. We’ve a great line-up of 28 dancers, 14 men and 14 women and there’s professional choreographers too. We’re doing it in conjunction with an event management company in Dublin, KR Events who have worked with some clubs around the country. Having them on board means it’s going to be a high quality night, we want to make sure the rugby events become a big gig in town.” He said businesses in town have been really supportive with both sponsorship and support of matches. “The goodwill is great. Rugby is on the up around the country, more and more kids are playing in the club every year and because of that we need quality facilities and the club has the vision to do that in terms of funding as the appetite is there. We haven’t really set a figure as such with Strictly, we want to do as best we can. Each of the dancers will be doing their own fundraising and we’ve a draw too with some really great prizes. It’s going to be a great night and we’ll be selling tickets in four weeks’ time, available through the club and some of the dancers as well. We’ll also reveal a dancer a day on social media,” John added.