Shinrone National School

2009

It's a day I'll always remember. After four victorious matches we got to the final. We were playing a tough St. Rynagh's team. I was so excited and nervous. I was practising every day in the hurling field after school and in the school pitch during lunch time.

The day before the final the team went to the hurling field and had a few pucks for about 45 minutes. When the day of the final arrived I was very nervous. I couldn't think of anything except the final. After school I walked to Billy's and bought a new hurley. I walked home, had a healthy sandwich and went up to the bus.

The team and the supporters went on the bus together. We were all looking forward to the match. When we got to Kinnity I watched a few minutes of the Colderry and Kilcormac Division 2 final which Colderry won. In the dressing room before the match we were handed our jerseys. Mr. Cleary told us to "blitz them and give 100% effort''.

We ran out of the dressing room and did a very nervous warm up. After our warm up we went in to our positions and the ref threw in the ball and about five minutes into the game I popped the ball over the bar. The next score came from me again when Michael hand passed me the ball to set up the score. Bangher came back and got a goal to put them in the lead but Shinrone reacted fast when J.P. scrambled the ball in to the goal. There were three more points for Shinrone put over before the half time whistle by Eoin Maher, Ciaran and Jordan. Banagher also hit a second goal to leave the score 1-6 to 2-0 at half time.

We went into the dressing room at half time and rehydrated. Mr. Cleary was telling us to blitz them again in the second half. We ran back onto the pitch and the second half started. Jordan hit over another free to put another point on the score board for Shinrone. Another point came when Ciaran hit the ball over the cross bar. A free by Jordan put Shinrone another point up. Rynaghs won possession and used it well and stuck the ball in the back of the net. Two more points came from Ciaran and myself but Rynaghs got another ball stuck under the cross bar and narrowed our lead to one point.

There was no less than five minutes left when I struck a low shot to the goal. We were up by five points when Michael stuck the ball over the bar. When the ref blew the final whistle I was full of joy. Jordan and Ciaran received the Fr. Vaugan cup and brought it to Shinrone where we celebrated. When we came back there was food prepared by the parents and people took photos of us.

This was a day I'll never forget and hopefully Shinrone can get two in a row!!