Ladies Football News
National League:
With last year?s exploits now history, Leitrim begin a new season with their first competitive outing in Division 2 of the National League next Sunday. In a very tough section Leitrim will have to travel to play Clare, Dublin and Limerick but first they welcome All Ireland Champions Sligo to Leitrim next Sunday. With a bye last weekend, all of their opponents started their campaign last weekend with Clare defeating Limerick but more significantly Sligo enjoyed a 1-11 to 2-5 over Dublin who were relegated from Division 1. Leitrim have been training since early in the New Year and the 2007 panel will see a number of new faces hoping to go one step further than last year. With their win over Dublin last Sunday, Sligo have obviously finished with their celebrations, but they know that they will face a stern test nest weekend. Leitrim will be hoping to consolidate their status in Division 2 and as the year progresses, they should make an impact on the final placings, however there will be no room for error as this promises to be one of the most competitive sections in all Divisions of the League. Best of luck to everyone involved on Sunday where the game will take place in Drumshanbo at 2.00pm.
Ready Steady Play Programme:
Mary Beades, Connacht Games Development Officer for ladies football was a welcome guest to a well attended county board meeting on Monday week last. Mary will be coordinating a Ready Steady Play programme in Leitrim starting the last weekend in March. The principal aim of the programme is to increase female volunteer participation in coaching in clubs in Leitrim. The target groups of participation in this new initiative is mothers of underage players, older sisters of underage players, former players, current players over 16 years of age and any adults wo regularly attend training that may be willing to help. Each club will ask current club coaches to introduce one or more volunteers to the club using a ?buddy system?. The volunteers will then attend a two and a half hour training course where they will be introduced to the basic skills of ladies football and given details of the Code of Ethics and good practice. Having completed the training course they will be required to participate with the coach in 4 training sessions with an underage team. On completion of an evaluation form to Head Office a coaching certificate will be awarded. It is hoped that the number of volunteers will increase using this system and they may continue on to complete the ladies FUNdamentals coaching course. We would encourage as many volunteers as possible to take part in this initiative.
FUNdamental Coaching Course:
A coaching course has been organised for Saturday 24th February in the Mayflower Hall, Drumshanbo. All under 12 and under 14 coaches should attend and the fee is ?20 per person.
Underage County Management :
The following management teams were ratified at the February county board meeting: Under 16 ? Brendan McCawley, Helen Tighe and Mary Quinn. Under 14 ? Pat McWeeney and Kieran Moran with a female selector yet to be appointed. Under 12 – Bernadette McLoughlin, Bernadette McCartin, Geraldine Creamer and Dympna Boylan.
14-Feb-07 by Patricia Bohan – Ladies PRO
