A superb performance from Skibbereen Community School saw our cadette 'A' basketball team defeat a heavily fancied Glanmire side and book their place in the All Ireland Play offs in Ursuline Sligo. Áine Keating and Tríona Murphy were the Skibbereen sides top scorers against Glanmire. Lana Dillane controlled the defence but it was a spirited performance from everyone on the panel.
And so the daunting task of getting our team to Sligo began in earnest. A first year Olympic Handball tournament, our Principal Mr. O'Mahony, a cake sale and a guess the sweets in a jarcompetition helped us to make this journey possible. Ms O' Mahony would like to thank the wonderful transition year students Kate, Lisa, Katie, Samirah, Abbie and many others who generously offered to help in our time of desperate need.
Strangely at the last minute, the hosts Ursuline Sligo pulled out of the tournament and we were now faced with the journey to North Mayo and the town of Kiltimagh. The team, kindly accompanied by the fantastic Ms. Breen left Skibbereen at eleven and arrived in Kiltimagh almost seven hours later. Ms O'Mahony's plan to have a session in the hall was no longer possible as the journey had sapped every ounce of energy the girls had.
In the first game, SCS faced a well organised Killtimagh side. This was a closely fought game from start to finish with Áine Keating and Shelley Brickley particularly effective in offence. The high standard of refereeing took us by surprise as travelling and fouls are not tolerated by the Western officials to the same extent as in Cork. Lana, our top defender got into foul trouble early on and our task of curbing a strong attacking offence became harder. To be fair, Áine Seymour stepped into her role and had an excellent game. At the final whistle, the Skibbereen side lost by two baskets.
The Loreto Letterkenny team were always going to provide sterner opposition and we were well aware of this heading into the game. They had thrown aside the challenge of Killtimagh earlier in the day. Despite facing a much tougher team, every Skibbereen girl gave everything in the pursuit of victory. Again Áine Keating stood out for her sheer determination. Orla O'Driscoll and Saidbh Redmond really upped their performance andscored some excellent long range shots.
But there was no stopping the penetrative play of Letterkenny. Their point guard was superb and their high low post play highly effective. Added to that their long range shooting was excellent from start to finish. Letterkenny are leading the Northern challenge in the club 'A' league and it was blatantly obvious why from their play in this game. Despite loosing by ten points , the Skibbereen side can be very proud of their efforts in this game in particular. They never put their heads down and gave everything on the court. They have made history by being the first SCS basketball team to reach the All Ireland Play off stage. No doubt many great teams will follow.
May we wish the first and second year girls and boys the best of luck in their league which is starting next week.
Congratulations to 2nd year student Grace Hendy who has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Doodle 4 Google "If I could create anything it would be..." competition. Grace is pictured below with the certificate she received and also pictured is an image of her doodle.
5th year students planting herbs for the Home Economics room.
Coláiste Muire 4 - 1 Skibbereen Community School
Match Report by Sean Spenser
With poor weather and a poor pitch it was certainly going to be a game where you did not want to go behind first. Unfortunately for Skibbereen they did. Shortly after kick off number 11 easily knocked the ball past the Skibbereen defence to whip a dangerous ball into the corridor of uncertainty. The number 9 was first to the ball, took one touch and saw the goal keeper was slow to go down to the ball and slotted it through his legs. For the rest of the first half Skibbereen were massively under the cosh with Cobh utilizing the flanks heavily. Most of the chances were coming through their left side. Barry Collins had a big first half making some fantastic saves to keep his team in the game.
Mid-way through the second half number 11 for Cólaiste Muire ran down the left wing and had an early shot which caught goalkeeper Barry Collins off guard and hit the back of the net. Soon after, Cobh decided to end the game with a quickfire double as a long hopeful ball was headed to the ever-so reliable Jack Collins with what seemed to be a lot of space. However his chest down was far too heavy and fell to the Cobh player who struck it first time on the half volley into the bottom corner, an unstoppable strike. Late on in the game Barry Collins came outfield and Daniel McCarthy went in goal. Chris Connolly and Muirios Waugh came onto the pitch and at this point the game changed. Whether it was all three new outfielders or just one of them, something clicked. I'm sure they will all argue their point. Barry Collins played a beautifully weighted pass to Chris Connolly who stopped the ball on the edge of the box by the byline. He shimmied and executed a great cutback to Dermot Hegarty on the edge of the box. He took one touch onto his left foot and hit it near post. It dribbled in past the keeper who hadn't been tested all game and couldn't deal with the first test.
Any hope Skibb might have had was soon put to bed as one long ball along the ground set number 11 free whose first time left footed shot left goalkeeper Daniel McCarthy standing, as the ball drilled in near post. The last highlight of the match was when Muirios and Dermot pulled off a sweet one-two allowing Dermot to chest it down and strike it on the volley with his left foot from distance, but was in dismay as he saw the ball swerve at the last second and strike the post.
Man of the Match: Patrick Bergin - The right back playing at left back had the best performance for the Skibbereen side. He stopped almost all the attacks down his side and was solid on the ball. Unfortunate to get injured halfway through the second half.
Starting 11
Barry Collins, Andrew Whelton, Patrick Bergin, Jack Collins, Conor Hourihane, Michael Meaney, Dermot Hegarty, Eoghan O'Neill , Aaron O' Sullivan, Alan Leonard, Jason Murray.
Used Substitutes
Ciaran O'Dwyer, Mark Keohane, Chris Connolly, Muirios Waugh, Daniel McCarthy.
Unused Substitutes
David Petrikauskas, Seán Finn Gallagher Spenser
The Third Year Parent-Teacher meeting will be held in the school tomorrow Thursday, 12th January 2017 from 4.15pm to 6.45pm.
Niall Collins, kai Hill, Kevin O’Donoghue and Wayne Williamson displaying their fabulous work. Well done to all!
Skibbereen Community School marked its first Christmas with a fun filled day. It began with all first years witnessing the turning on of the Christmas tree lights in the General Assembly Area. Santa paid a special visit and handed out a mountain of sweets. They then held their own Christmas party and were first in line to get the Christmas dinner from the canteen. All years joined them for a lunchtime concert performed by the legendary singer, Mr. John Spillane. The entire community wore their Christmas Jumpers which raised 1200 Euro for the Aurelia Trust Charity and our own Learning Resource Centre. Mr. Anton O'Mahony, our Principal wished all students and their families a very Happy Christmas. The School wishes to thank the Religion Department, The Music Department, The L.R.C Department and Mr.John Spillane for making the day so memorable.
On the 25th of November, the school entered its first showjumping event which was held in Wayne Santry's Equestrian Centre in KIlbrittan. The team comprised of Jennifer Dorrington, Amy Dorrington, Lisa Harte, Martha Mulcahy, Hannah Pernas O Shea, Zoe O Connor and Caitlin Brennan. The grooms were Leah Wyn and Matt Mulcahy. The whole team performed admirably, taking 7th place out of 12 teams. Thanks to Mr. PJ Fitzgerald and Ms. Dorrington for organising.
Here are some pictures of our Christmas Festive Day which was held on Monday December 12th.
The Religion Department of Skibbereen Community School were very busy over the last few weeks collecting food for St Vincent de Paul. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed. Included in the photo are a few of the hampers. All students were encouraged in their classes to contribute to a hamper for the needy!
Pictured below are some cribs produced by first year students in Art and Religion class.
Students hard at work, double checking all is in order before our Christmas Festive Day on Monday 12th December.
First year students from class 1D collecting food for the St. Vincent de Paul food appeal and collecting items for the Simon Community appeal. Please give generously this Christmas.
Match report by Sean Spenser.
Skibbereen Community School 2 - 2 Kinsale Community School
Mid way through the first half Isaac Harte took the lead for Skibbereen with a spectacular finish into the top right hand corner of the net. It didn't stay at 1-0 for long as a mere two minutes later Skibbereen had a corner. As the ball came in, it cleared everyone in the box. Kinsale launched a counter attack. With the rest of the team leaving the centre backs too much to do on Kinsale's left flank, their attacker was able to run through and slot home near post. Skibbereen's mood was low going in at half time and they needed to bounce back and score first if they wanted a win. During the second half Kinsale got a corner. None of their corners in the first half had reached the first man. This one did however and it went straight to a Skibbereen defender who headed clear to the edge of the box. The ball was hit first time and this was again poorly cleared and this time Skibbereen did not get off scot-free. As the shot came back in it deflected off Gearoid McCarthy causing a disastrous own goal through no fault of his own. Skibbereen luckily did not let their heads drop and sooner rather than later they were on the attack again. Liam McCarthy played in his team mate, got it back inside the box, but his shot was unfortunately saved. Luckily for Skibbereen, Jack O' Brien was there to score. In the last 10 minutes of the game Liam McCarthy went one on one with the goalkeeper, took it round him, but unfortunately his shot was blocked off the line by a fantastic slide tackle by Kinsale's number four. It stayed at 2-2 and I think it was a very fair result. If I had to pick a winner I'd have said Skibbereen. Even though they had a lot of possession, Kinsale didn't create many opportunities, whereas Skibbereen looked very threatening on the attack.
Man Of the Match: Robbie Minihane - The captain played phenomenally at centre back, breaking down most of Kinsale's attacks while dominating the aerial battles. He set up a few very decent attacks from the back as well!
See Timetables for each year group below.
2nd YEAR TIMETABLE F47/48/49/53/54
Congratulations to Kate O'Donovan who was awarded the title 'Chef of the Week' in class 1.1 last week. Also pictured are 2nd year students displaying their dishes, which account for 25% of their Christmas grade.
The following are our 5th year entries in the Euroscola Poster Competition.
The Transition Year Outdoor Pursuits Group pictured enjoying their hike on Toe Head yesterday.