Handball Report 2010

While this report relates to 2010, I consider it is important to put on record some achievements of Leixlip Handball Club that took place in 2009 after filing of the 2009 report.

Club of the Year Award
Leixlip Handball Club was the recipient of probably the highest accolade of its 25-year history when it was chosen as GAA Handball Club of the Year 2009 at a Gala All-Star Banquet in Croke Park on Friday 4th December. This high-profile event, which was compered by RTE’s Marty Morrissey, provided an exciting and colourful backdrop to the award and the occasion will no doubt have been a memorable one for the large Leixlip contingent present. The club award was the final one of a night which honoured outstanding handball achievement in 2009 and the long wait proved well worthwhile when Leixlip was declared the winner, ahead of Kingscourt (Ulster), Fenagh (Connacht) and Cashel (Munster). This achievement is a fitting testament to the founders of the club back in 1984 and to all those who have given so generously of their time and worked so successfully over the past 25 years.
Provincial awards had earlier been made and in addition to the club award, Niall O’Connor received the Leinster Youth Player Award.

Club Annual Event
The annual social night of Leixlip GAA club saw a number of handball achievements being prominently acknowledged.
Special Achievement Award: Niall O’Connor
Handball Personality 2009: Paula Dagg
Hall of Fame Award: Vinny Wrynn
Club Personality 2009: Sean O’Connor

County GAA Awards
Two of the club’s most prominent members were the recipients of awards at the Kildare GAA Awards function in the Hotel Keadeen, Newbridge. Club Secretary, Pat Ryan, received the Kildare Handball Personality 2009 award for his long and distinguished service in handball in Leixlip and Kildare, while Niall O’Connor received a special award in recognition of his many competitive achievements in 2009, most notably his World Championship success in Portland, Oregon.

Adult Competition
Moving to 2010, Anna Spence won the Leinster Ladies 40x20 title defeating Patricia Doyle in the final. She then proceeded to a great win over Ashley Prendeville (Kerry) in the quarter-final. However, she was beaten by top seed Aisling Reilly of Antrim in the semi-final. Niall O’Connor won his first senior national title when he captured the Irish Nationals Men’s B title, Paul Moran won the Men’s A plate. Des Lyons, who has a long and distinguished record of togging out for Leixlip and Kildare, again, as in 2009, reached the All Ireland final of the Diamond Masters B championship. He was defeated by Sean Devlin of Louth.
Anna Spence followed up her 40x20 win with reaching the final of the 60x30 Leinster championship. Unfortunately, Shauna Hilley of Wicklow got the upper hand on the day.
Aileen Quinn and Ellen O’Connor reached the Leinster final of the Ladies Junior B doubles where they were defeated by the ultimate All-Ireland winners, Niamh Egan and Aoife McCarthy of Westmeath.
The club made a welcome return to team competition, when a Junior B team led by Terry Spence participated in the Leinster 60x30 Championships. However their relative inexperience in the big court code resulted in defeat to a strong Castlebridge [Wexford] team.

Kildare Championships
One of the targets of our 25th Anniversary year was to encourage and facilitate greater competition within the county. This year a very successful Kildare 40x20 championship was run. Sixteen players from Leixlip participated and we had outright winners in Una Wrynn in the ladies and PJ Tobin an the men’s Junior B
At time of writing the Kildare 60x30 championship is being organised. These competitions are very important to promote and support handball in Kildare and some great friendships develop from them.

Juvenile Competition

Leinster Championships
In 40x20 Hannah Dagg won the U12 singles and her sister Kate won the U13 singles - a great family achievement for these two sisters. Amy McGrane and Aine O’Keeffe were runners up in the U14 doubles and Rebecca Timmins was runner up in the U15 singles. In the Boys U12 B singles Cal Cribben was runner up. In 60x30, Aine O’Keeffe won the U13 singles title.

Minor
Niall O’Connnor won the All Ireland hardball title. He also won the 40x20 Leinster minor title.

Schools Handball
Our girls in second level entered the schools 60x30 championships recently and performed well in the unfamiliar surroundings of the bigger court. At the time of writing they are still involved in first-year competition and with the  40x20 events to commence shortly we will be looking for some big performances from our young players.

Tournaments

One Wall Nationals
This year Leixlip had its biggest representation yet at the National One Wall championships. Fifteen players took part – from under 10 to Diamond Masters. Vinny Wrynn won the Diamond Masters, Una Wrynn won the Ladies B plate, Niall O’Connor reached the under 18 final and Padraig Maguire was runner up in the Masters plate.

Other One Wall Tournaments
Ellen O’Connor won the plate in the Ladies Challenger in Williamstown and Niall O’Connor was runner up with his partner Killian Carroll (Mallow) in the 17 and under final in Abbeylara.

Feile na nGael
One of the really high points in Leixlip handball this year was the performance and achievement of our three Feile teams. The boys played in Division 5 and reached the semi-finals. Sean Muddiman won the skills award. The team was Jack Tobin, Sean Muddiman, Cal Cribben, Kevin Diggins and Jack Price.
The girls had a clean sweep, winning Divisions 2 and 3 and with Aine O’Keeffe and Doireann McNamara winning the skills awards in their respective divisions. The teams were:
Division 2 – Amy McGrane (Captain), Aine O’Keeffe, Kate Dagg and Hannah Dagg
Division 3 -      Ciara Diggins (Captain), Doireann McNamara, Saoirse Sunderland, Jade Foley and Robyn Gibney

What is of particular note here is the part played by some of the parents in the preparation and management of these teams. Well done to all. 

Leixlip Invitational Tournament
Following the great success of our invitational tournament in 2009, the club was requested by the Irish Handball Council to hold another tournament this year. The tournament was held in June and was, again, a resounding success. Forty eight of the country’s top juvenile players in ages from 11 to 17 competed. In addition to Leixlip, games were also played in Ballymore Eustace and Maynooth. On the Saturday evening the Court Yard Hotel, our main sponsor, treated us all to a barbeque. Great thanks is due to Laura Moriarty and her colleagues in the Court Yard.

The finals were attended by Tony Hannon, President, Irish Handball Council and Robert Murphy, Chairman, Leixlip GAA Club. All participants were presented with a Leixlip jersey and a specially commissioned piece of Leitrim crystal.

Coaching
Coaching of our juvenile players is one of the club’s key strategies. I feel very strongly that we must give this priority. There is an obligation on all members to contribute to this. Vinny Wrynn has developed extensive material to support any club member wishing to get involved in coaching and they will get every support. Most of this information is available on the website. The club’s “Coaching and Competition – Plan 2010” (again available on the website) sets out a comprehensive coaching and competition plan for 2010. Through consistent hard work by a number of people under the guidance of Vinny Wrynn, this plan is well on the way towards delivery this year.
One of the most significant developments within the club this year and which is part of the above plan, has been the number of highly successful events organised to introduce our young players to competition and to give them the necessary experience and confidence to compete successfully in provincial and national competitions. A mixture of internal competition and visits to clubs such as Monavea, Cullohill, Roscommon, Na Fianna and others has broadened our players’ experience. This will stand them in good stead in the 2011 championships. However, this initiative has been more extensively taken up by the girls than the boys. We need to up our game on the boys’ side. PJ Tobin is doing a great job but needs more support.
To enhance our coaching capability within the club a Foundation Level Handball Coaching Course was successfully undertaken by 16 club members within the past year. I hope a number of these will proceed to Level One shortly.

Communication
Communication in all its forms is an area that needs constant attention. Our website has been an outstanding success. It is updated practically on a daily basis and this is an essential part of its great effectiveness. We plan to utilise it more in the future as a means of communicating with our members and the wider public. Feedback suggests that our Front Wall slot in the Liffey Champion is now a ‘must read’ for handballers and the Leixlip community generally. We are hoping to extend coverage to other newspapers.
The traditional organs of communication such as word of mouth are still as effective as ever and I think we could do more to spread the gospel particularly within the Leixlip community which we serve.

Maintenance and Refurbishment of the Court
There is always work to be done in maintaining and improving our handball facilities. This year we installed new showers and tiled the shower areas. Next year we plan to address the ventilation issue and maybe do some work on the court floor. This type of work is expensive and can only be done through intensive fundraising. This year we ran a successful Table Quiz. We had 37 tables on the night and that contributed over €2,500 towards the showers. Great credit and thanks are due to all those who contributed to the event.
It has been drawn to my attention on a number of occasions that not all club members feature prominently when fundraising or work is to be done and that the club needs to take an initiative to spread the burden more evenly among all its members. Perhaps this is something the incoming Chairman might address.

Social/Cultural
The Family Day has become a very important element of the social and cultural fabric of the club and a number of very successful events have taken place during the year. This is further evidence of the very welcome trend of increased parent involvement in club affairs, something that is so essential for the long-term wellbeing of the club

There has always been great camaraderie within Leixlip Handball Club. In earlier times, when the founding contingent was younger, bouts of fun and merriment were liable to break out at any time. In latter times these great trailblazers are more difficult to stir (or, in some cases, wake up) so merriment and celebration is now usually confined to around Christmas. No better man than Terry Spence to organise a Christmas party.

Acknowledgements
Leixlip Handball Club is a core constituent part of Leixlip GAA Club. Robert Murphy and our colleagues on the Executive have been very supportive of me and the handball club generally. I would like to express my thanks to them. Without their generous support, we in handball would not be in a position to deliver a quality service to the people of Leixlip. My colleagues on the handball committee deserve great credit for assuming responsibility for particular elements of the handball work programme this year and for delivering on it. With people like Vinny Wrynn, Paula Dagg, PJ Tobin, Pat Ryan, Anna Spence and Paula Doyle, I needed to hold very few committee meetings this year. I just needed to stay out of the way and let them get on with the job.

Sean O’Connor
Chairman.

October 2010