St Loman’s Street Leagues return with great gusto
St Loman's GAA Club's first Street League series since the pandemic drew to a close in glorious sunshine last Wednesday evening.
Every Wednesday evening throughout the month of May, around 250 girls and boys from the ages of six to 12 played mixed team matches with their friends and relatives at Homestead Lakepoint Park, Mullingar.
Last Wednesday evening, the 22 teams, each of which was given a county name, were led out by players from the club's senior men and women's teams, who also took on the role of guest coaches on the evening too.
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The ‘Clare’ team after they received their medals on Wednesday night. Also in the photo is their guest coach, Chris Gilbert.Image 2 of 4
The Kildare team with their guest coach Jack Geoghegan, back, second from right, with their mentors David Mulleady, Rodney Farry and Darren Loughrey.Image 3 of 4
The Clare and Tipperary teams with their guest coaches Chris Gilbert and Danny McCartan.Image 4 of 4
The Sligo and Meath teams before their match, with coaches, Ross Clinton, Jayne Charles, Anna Sheehy and Kate McDonnell.At the end of proceedings, the players were all given medals and ice creams as a reward for their efforts over the month.
St Loman's underage chairman Garrett Hickey told the Westmeath Examiner that the Street League series is one of the most important events in the club's calendar and the large numbers that participated reflects the healthy state of its underage set-up.
“We are very luck in Loman's that our girls side and boys side are evenly matched numbers wise. We can play girls and boys on mixed teams, albeit the girls are a year older than the boys in their individual age groups, so the under eight girls play with the under seven boys, and so on. It gives brothers and sister, school friends and neighbours all a chance to play with and against each other.
“We try and put as many children that know each other on the one team. Eache had between 10 and 12 on them and the idea of keeping the team small is that everyone gets a touch. There are no subs. It's all inclusive and there are no winners and no losers.”
Garrett says that each year the Street Leagues have been run, Loman's has received a lot of positive feedback from parents. Getting senior players to help on the concluding night helps strenghten the bonds between the different sections of the club, he says.
“It generated a huge amount of interest from the kids, both at training on Saturday and in their schools when they were talking to their friends.
“A big thank to Johnny Plunkett and Brew 42. They provided ice-creams and every child also got a medal, as nice a medal that I have ever seen for anything.
“The kids liked having the members of the adult teams leading them out. Not all of them might have known who they were, but they new they were special.
“ It was great to see so many special guest coaches coming down and a special word of thanks for Ronan O'Toole to come and present the medals. We are not just a junior club and a senior club we are all in it together.”
The proud Mullingar club is certainly continuing a great tradition of building for the future as the work of many people, such as the late Joe Matthews, continues.