The Xtra/vision FAI Schools 5-a-side took place on Wednesday 14 April 2010, with Parkville United FC in Tullow, Co: Carlow the host club: An increase in schools attending and the number of teams participating made it a very busy day for all involved:
What started as a cold morning with the first few schools arriving finished off in glorious sunshine with the final games that decided who would be representing County Carlow in the South Leinster Finals in Gorey in May:
This year the number of schools attending increased from 14 to 18 with the number of teams participating increasing also from 28 teams to 33 teams:
The games were played on 6 pitches with the teams in the small schools “A” cup kicking off on time at 10am: The small schools “A” cup was split into 2 groups with Myshall National School enjoying some early success in group 1 and topping the group unbeaten, group 2 saw Old Leighlin National School winning and setting up a final game with Myshall: Old Leighlin National School were just too strong for Myshall and they won the final game of the day to move on the South Leinster finals:
Just like the 2009 competition St Patricks National School from Rathvilly won the medium schools “B” cup: With the numbers increased from last year in this section saw 2 groups of teams playing on pitch 3 with Bennekerry National School playing v St Patricks National School Rathvilly in the final group game:
Bishop Foley National School from Carlow town were too strong for the rest of the teams in large schools “C” cup: A number of players from the Carlow & District Juveniles League U12s emerging talent programme showed their class as a very strong team from Bishop Foley went through unbeaten in this section and like last year they progress to the South Leinster finals:
11 girl’s teams participated this year and again the presence of Bennekerry National School girls team made the standard of the competition very high, with 3 members of last year’s All Ireland winning team playing again this year: Bennekerry went through the day unbeaten and will represent the County at next month’s South Leinster Finals participating in the Large Schools Girls “B” cup:
St Josephs National School from Hacketstown came through the Small School Girls “A” cup and will make the journey to Gorey after a very successful day for the team and school who were new to the competition this year:
Well done to all the players who participated on the day, a total of 264 students played and the standard was high and so to was the discipline of the players and coaching staff: Thanks also to the teachers and parents who got all the players to the venue on time in order for all the fixtures to kick off on time and also finish on time!!!
A new edition to this year’s competition for the County Carlow finals was the presence of the 1st year students from the Institute of Technology BA Sport and Exercise (Soccer) Course: This was an ideal opportunity to help develop more links within the county between the FAI and primary schools with a number of schools participating having had a number of coaching sessions already this year from the students: On the day the students refereed all the games, kept the scores, took all photographs and worked with the schools to make sure that all fixtures kicked off on time: A big thanks to FAI Staff Luke Hardy and Paul O’Reilly for making this happen and to the students themselves from IT Carlow:
Garry Coady FAI Development Officer County Carlow
Small Schools “A” Cup Winners Old Leighlin National School
Medium Schools “B” Cup Winners St Patricks National School Rathvilly
Large School “C” Cup Winners Bishop Foley National School Carlow
Small Schools Girls “A” Cup Winners St Josephs National School Hacketstown
Large Schools Girls “B” Cup Winners Bennekerry National School
Participating Schools on the day were
St Patricks National School Rathvilly
Tinryland National School
Askea Boys National School
Bishop Foley National School
Tullow Boys National School
Drumphea National School
Drummond National School
St Josephs National School Hacketstown
Bennekerry National School
Old Leighlin National School
Myshall National School
Old Leighlin National School
Ballinabranna National School
Ballinkillen National School
Ballon National School
Ardattin National School
St Columba’s National School Tullow
Kildavin National School
