2014

Excerpt from www.handball.ie  -------  March 3rd 2014 ------
"A special mention must go to Scoil Mhuire, Monaghan for their impressive work done in developing handball, with the school claiming an unprecented clean sweep of Ulster titles in the Boys grades, sending 6 players to the National Day."
 

Liathróid Láimhe - Handball  

There is a strong tradition of handball in Scoil Mhuire. The boys take part in Cumann na mBunscol Mhuineacháin handball competitions and have brought great success to the school. Internal handball leagues are held in the school. In 2013 over 180 pupils have expressed an interest in entering the Class Handball Leagues.

County - Provincial- All-Ireland - World Champions

Current and past pupils of Saint Mary's have won County, Ulster, All-Ireland and World Championships in handball.

In 2013 Scoil Mhuire repeated the feat of 2012 with a clean sweep of all Co. Mhuineacháin Competitions.

At the Cumann na mBunscol Ulster Finals in Glenfin, Donegal, the Saint Mary's boys, competing against the cream of Ulster handball players,  reached all of the Ulster Finals in all four handball competitions- winning three (U13 Singles - Justas Dambinskas and U13 Doubles- Jakub Szkup and Konrad Kowal, and U11 Singles Eoghan Mc Ginnity ). Deivydas Kaklauskas and Tiernan O' Rourke were runners-up in U11 Doubles in their first year competing as a pair.

The National Finals in Kingscourt saw Saint Mary's represent Ulster in three out of the four Cumann na mBunscol competitions. After an entertaining day's play Eoghan Mc Ginnity won the U11 Singles, Jakub and Konrad shared the U13 Doubles title with the Tipperary pairing, while Justas Dambinskas finished runner-up in U13 Singles.

A fantastic year for the boys and for the school...Saint Mary's proving to be the dominant school on the national stage in primary school's handball.

 

In 2012  Scoil Mhuire had a clean sweep of all Co. Mhuineacháin Competitions, winning U11 Singles, U11 Doubles and U13 Singles and U13 Doubles. All of these singles players and pairs reached their finals at the Ulster Finals. The U11 Doubles and U13 Singles were crowned Ulster Champions.

The U11 Doubles and U13 Singles went on to win All-Ireland Titles, defeating all other opponents from Connacht, Leinster and Munster along the way.

 

 

The boys spend their breaks playing in the school handball alley and have represented school, county and province with distinction.

Class handball leagues are held in the school in the spring and summer term.

 Handball Legend Duxie Walshe helps out

The legendary handball player Duxie Walshe recently found out about our great handball tradition.  He saw Justas playing in Kingscourt and decided to come to Monaghan to see for himself the skills of our players.  He spoke to all our players about playing the great game.  He played all our up-and-coming players and was suitably impressed.  In fact his encouragement paid off as the next day we had great success in the Monaghan County Juvenile Championships.  Justas and Cailean got to the Under 12 County Final.  Ryan got to the Under 13 Final, while Eoghan and Jakub surprised many by reaching the semi-finals - a great achievement for nine and ten-year olds.  He has promised to return to Monaghan soon.  By the way he recently started coaching a former past pupil ( Ramunas) who is making great strides on the National handball scene and who is going to the USA after Christmas to compete for Ireland in the American Junior Nationals.

Handball Finals 2010

These are the finalists of the lunchtime handball leagues organised by Mr. McEntee.

We have many new players this year 2010-2011 and they are looking forward to the new season.  The competition begins in the new year when the weather improves.  Most of the children can't wait. The question is who will win the sixth class competition now that Simonas has moved on? The competition in Rang 3 will be very interesting. Ms Hughes has some good players who also play handball for Monaghan Harps.  In fact we will have several participants in the county Blitz in early December.

In the past we have been to the fore in the Cumann na mBunscol competition in Monaghan and in Ulster.  Our coach will choose 3 players in the Under-11 group and 3 players in the Under-13 age group. It's all to play for! Players to watch out for are Justas, Conor, Cailean, Ryan, James and Séan.  However there could be some surprises!

 

 

Handball Success:

Our school's handballers were representing Monaghan in the Community Games Handball competition in Roscommon on Saturday 26th. The doubles team was Konrad and Jacub and in the singles there was Justas and Caolan. The combined points scored by each member of the team in their games were added up to chose the winning team. Heading into the last game we were 19 points behind. We knew that if Roscommon player scored 11 points we would have no hope of winning. Justas dug deep and won each of his two games, 15-0 and 15-3. This meant our total had increased by 30 points and their total by only 3. And so we were victorious. For the first time ever Monaghan won the Gold Medal.

While this was happening Eoghan was playing in the 'one wall' tournament in Williamstown and on hearing of our result raced over to congratulate his friends.... and then announced that he had also won and was All-Ireland One Wall Champion.

 

Coach Mr. McEntee will need a long rest to recover from the excitement of this weekend.