Hurling in St.Francis College

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Hurling has recently been resurrected in the College after a hiatus of over 30 Years ! In 2002, Denis Mc Donnell organised a small band of students for a hurling session in the school pitch with a view to entering a team in the Cork Colleges G.A.A. “C” competition. After their first year of competition, the U 14½ hurlers were defeated at the semi-final stage and in 2003 were beaten by Mitchelstown C.B.S. in the final.

 

Hurling began to expand into the U 16 age group by 2005 and the U 16 team agonisingly lost the 2006 final toNagleRiceCollege, Doneraile by a margin of only 2 points! Following the well worn adage “there’s always next year”, the Roco hurlers finally gained the silverware in 2007 by winning both the U14½ and U16 titles by beating Cobh and Ballincollig Community School respectively.

 

2008 brought promotion to the ‘B’ grade which the U 14 team went on to win by beating St. Aidan’s Community College in the final in May of that year in a rain soaked Cork Institute of Technology. By this time the school was also competing in Munster Colleges Hurling and an outstanding U 15 team reached the Munster Colleges semi-final in 2008 but lost out to the Patrician Academy from Mallow in a very bruising encounter.

 

2009 ended with the U 16 team being victorious in the ‘B’ grade by gaining victory over former kingpins of Cork Colleges Hurling – the North Mon. 2009 also saw our U14 hurlers promoted to the ‘A’ grade and the accounted for themselves very well by reaching the semi final and by beating the famed St. Colman’s of Fermoy along the way.

 

In 2008/2009, fresh coaching talent arrived in the school in the shape Aidan Lonergan from Co. Tippereary. He is still playing hurling himself and brings a great deal of knowledge, passion and pride to every training session and match.

 

By the 2011 season Diarmuid Fahy who is originally from Limerick but hurls with Courcey Rovers also enlisted with the coaching staff. His shrewd tactics and enthusiastic attitude have added greatly to the setup.

 

For the 2011/2012 season, the school is competing in U14, U16 & U18 Cork Colleges ‘A’ Hurling and U15, U16½ & U18½ Munster Colleges ‘B’ Hurling.

 

Undoubtedly there has been a rapid rise through the grades for our teams and the next few years are expected to be no different. Our priorities are the continued development of hurling and competing at the very highest level of competition.

 

Roco abú.