Strabane Sigersons GAA Youth Awards 2015

Strabane Sigersons GAA hosted their Annual Youth Awards night on Thursday night past at Holy Cross College with a huge crowd present for what was a very enjoyable event. Boys and Girls from the Sigersons youth teams accompanied by their friends and parents joined their youth coaches in a celebration of the young talent at the club.
Youth Officer Jason Foley opened the ceremony by playing a video montage of the highlights of the 2015 season which triggered the memories of the numerous events on the youth calendar and illustrated just how much work that the volunteer coaches put into the Club’s youth structures. These coaches were praised for their efforts with Aodhán Harkin & Dean Molloy being singled out for praise for the support they gave to the youth officer throughout the year. Youth players Aoife & Niambh Foley were also given a special mention for achieving the GoldMark Excellence Award for 200 hours of volunteering at the Club.
Although the main focus of the event was to recognise the achievements of our young athletes, the coaches used the opportunity to reiterate the message that Strabane Sigersons GAA is more than just a Gaelic Football Club. As well as developing player’s footballing ability the coaches make great efforts in educating our young players on social issues such as the dangers of drugs and alcohol. The message to the youth players was for them to give themselves the opportunity to be the “best that they can be” and for them not to  let decisions they make in their social lives be the reason for them not fulfilling their potential both on and off the pitch.
The G.A.A. National Health & Well Being Chairperson, Ciarán ‘Moby’ McLaughlin presented those in attendance with information booklets on nutrition and Player Welfare and talked about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and how it severely impacts upon communities. He spoke about the importance of health and wellbeing amongst all of the players, coaches and their families and the many support groups that are around to assist whenever there is a crisis or help needed.
There were three prizes in each age of the age groups, the Toilteanach Award, Most Improved Player & Player of the Year: The prize winners in each group were as follow;
U12 Girls Toilteanach winner: Liana McIntyre
U12 Girls Most Improved Player: Zara-Leigh Kelly
U12 Girls Player of the Year: Rebecca McConnell
U12 Boys Toilteanach winner: Daire Devlin
U12 Boys Most Improved Player: Oisín McGillion
U12 Boys Player of the Year: Eoin Barkley
U13 Boys Toilteanach winner: Liam McElhinney
U13 Boys Most Improved Player: Aaron McGrath
U13 Boys Player of the Year: Oran McGrath
U14 Girls Toilteanach winner: Aimee Friel & Caoimhlin Bonner
U14 Girls Most Improved Player: Laisairiona Doherty & Eire-Jo Dunne
U14 Girls Player of the Year: Ellie-Jay McMenamin & Anna Mortimore
U14 Boys Toilteanach winner: Anthony Crossan
U14 Boys Most Improved Player: Conor Williamson
U14 Boys Player of the Year: Gavin O’Kane
U16 Girls Toilteanach winner: Erin Gallagher
U16 Girls Most Improved Player: Amy-Lee McCauley
U16 Girls Player of the Year: Aoife O’Kane
U16 Boys Toilteanach winner: Ryan Kelly
U16 Boys Most Improved Player: Tiernan Devlin
U16 Boys Player of the Year: Ruairi Gormley
U18 Girls Toilteanach winner: Caoimhe Friel
U18 Girls Most Improved Player: Eireann O’Hagan
U18 Girls Player of the Year: Leah O’Hagan
U18 Boys Toilteanach winner: Pádhraic McCay
U18 Boys Most Improved Player: Shearnan McCay
U18 Boys Player of the Year: Matty Campbell
The Club’s 2015 Tyrone representatives: Rúairí White, Rúairí Gormley, Ryan Kelly, Ellie-Jay McMenamin and Caoimhe Friel received an award to honour their achievements and the forever young trio of Dean Molloy, Sean Barkley and Richard O’Neill who each received a medal in recognition of winning the All-Ireland Championship with Tyrone Master’s team.
Highlight of the night was reserved for the successful U13 Boys team who received their County Medals from Tyrone footballing legend Conor Gormley. Following this, Brian McGillion representing the parents of the successful Under 13 boy’s side presented the management team with special canvas prints marking the winning of the County title which received great applause from the packed attendance.
Sigersons & Tyrone player Dan McBride accompanied Conor Gormley to congratulate the award winners and to offer advice to the young Sigersons Gaels. The two Tyrone stars suggested that there were no short cuts to success in the game and identified commitment, determination, hard work, a good attitude and countless hours as the minimum attributes that a player needs to have to reach the top of this or any indeed any sport.