Tralee Town U10 Blitz

Sunshine and Fun combined to make last Sundays Under 10 blitz a very enjoyable event hosted by Austin Stacks in Connolly Park.  Austin Stacks, Kerins O’Rahillys, Na Gaeil, Churchill and Ballymacelligott all sent in teams and they gathered on the newly developed “Nuns Field” to play as many Go Games format matches as we could fit in to an hour and a half.

Team Mentors acted as referees and on the field coaches during the games and to be honest as the morning progressed you could see improvements in the play and teamwork of the girls who competed with a sense of fun which would refresh the soul of anyone involved in competitive sport.

Pat Reidy, Austin Stacks Coach, summed up the attitude of everyone walking off afterwards when he quipped that we should do this every week, I know what he meant in that it was obvious that the girls learned more in the hour of matches as they would in three Academy sessions.

Kudos to Strand Road who sent up both their U10s and their U8s and made sure that every girl played games by entering two teams, the numbers in their Academy is very impressive and the fact that they have recruited new coaches for their teams is very encouraging for the future of their club.

Churchill really are a club with the right attitude, they had four mentors with their team and they approached the morning as a coaching session, not worrying about results and correcting errors and rewarding skill with an enthusiasm that could only inspire.

Austin Stacks had a skeleton squad available with Communion and the U12 games taking some of their players but the girls that played showed some great skill and the experience of playing competitively with the U12 B team was obvious with some of the older girls.

Ballymac had a fine squad of skilful and determined girls at the Blitz and were very competitive in most of their games, their coaches continue the tradition of this very new club of pushing the skill factor with their girls and encouraging the girls to play in space and get away from the bottled up areas of the field.

Na Gaeil had some of the most talented individuals on show, one girl in particular playing midfield was very athletic and controlled the play with her skill and athleticism but she was ably assisted by very clever forwards.

All in All a very enjoyable day and I would encourage other clubs to host similar events, it is not that hard, believe me and it is very rewarding.