Hello. My name is Emma O Grady. I’m in 5^th class Ballyconnell NS.

I really enjoy football. I’ve been playing since I was 8 years old. I play for Coolkenno GAA Club. My position is centre back.

3 weeks ago, we had the trials for the Cumann na mBunscol skills competition. We were judged on our ability to handpass, kick and solo. For the handpassing, there were 6 balls laid out on the ground and 2 cones roughly 2 metres away to make a make-shift goal because the pitch was under construction for the new school building. You handpassed 3 balls with your left hand and 3 with your right. If people got the same score then whoever got the faster time would qualify.

It was the same with kicking, just further apart. For solos you would run from a cone, do 4 solos on your right foot then go back doing the same but with your left.

It was 2 days after that Mr Bryne, our teacher, said that Mary Lawlor, a girl from my class, and myself had qualified! I was overjoyed and really happy!

The skills were after the Easter holidays. I had been practising A LOT. It was a Wednesday. Myself and Mary went into school to get jerseys. Mary was giving me a lift there. It was in Ballinakill, The Centre of Excellence.

When we got there, the lads were nearly done. I could see Elliot and Mason, the 2 lads that qualified from our school. Sadly, they didn’t make it through to the finals.

As we walked to the pitch, I saw some gigantic puddles! They weren’t that deep but at 1 or 2 points they could cover your whole boot. At the pitch, it was so mucky. We ended up doing our solos and handpasses on the astro turf and only kicking on the pitch.

A few minutes later the trials started. There were also a few people who were doing camogie skills. We got separated into 2 groups. Luckily, myself and Mary got paired in the same group! I was happy because this was pretty much the same as the trials we had in school.

We all went up and 1 by 1 did our solos, then handpasses. They both went pretty well. I got all my solos (8 out of 8) and I got 5 out of 6 of my handpasses. I even got 2^nd best in my group!

Kicking was a different story … I only got 3 out of 8 but a lot of people got around the same score.

Neither myself nor Mary ended up qualifying for the final in the end.

All in all, I really enjoyed it and for me it was a great experience. All the girls there were really nice and we all had a great time.

 

Shooting!

Pasáil Láimhe

Soloing